Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA17636 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 31 Aug 2001 13:53:20 +0100 From: Philip Jonkers <P.A.E.Jonkers@phys.rug.nl> X-Authentication-Warning: rugth1.phys.rug.nl: www-data set sender to jonkers@localhost using -f To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Some Light relief Message-ID: <999262280.3b8f884811259@rugth1.phys.rug.nl> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 14:51:20 +0200 (CEST) References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D310174606A@inchna.stir.ac.uk> <3B8F7B35.FED3E1EF@bioinf.man.ac.uk> In-Reply-To: <3B8F7B35.FED3E1EF@bioinf.man.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: IMP/PHP IMAP webmail program 2.2.5 X-Originating-IP: 129.125.13.3 Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Quoting Chris Taylor <Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk>:
> Ok I've got a problem with the major organised religions (get in line
> mate, they shout from the wings). The problem is, they all have fairly
> elaborate washing ceremonies. So can we really say that all competing
> religions died out through typhoid, or that the inheritance of later
> religions from their precursors (judaism+ -> christianity + islam) for
> some reason just included this? (Yes, but...)
Call me ignorant (I do have to cross a language barrier)
but I can't really say I understand what your
problem is. I like to assume the niche as aptly expressed
in the Meme-Machine chapter 14 by Susan Blackmore. Liberally
adapted, she goes on explaining that religions comprise
powerful, but nonetheless airborne, meme-plexes enthralling
the masses by making fairy tale promises (about the afterlife
and stuff) and spreading hate and tolerance towards other
religions or people who think rationally (that will be atheists).
Also to every atheist's dismay religions are very `hot' even
today (BTW: what's with the `typhoid' thing?; aliens?).
Please elaborate Chris,
Philip.
> Because my alternative (the light relief) is aliens. When aid workers
> go
> to some countries the main thing they push is water quality and
> washing,
> because it's a simple and effective change to engineer. If aliens were
> doing parasociological engineering on us (as experiment, or 'aid'),
> they'd probably put that in there (go on, have a wash, it's great).
>
> Taking off shoes, washing hands, you often have to have a full (if now
> brief and rather stylised) bath to be a christian (dunno about the
> others).
>
> Also we have to factor in the other 'funny business':
> The Jews had a super weapon (the ark - they never lost a battle with
> it
> in train),
> The Christians had a super hero (who mysteriously couldn't perform his
> miracles on demand, but did quite well turning that into a virtue),
> The muslims also appear to have had a super weapon (their army held
> for
> weeks against all comers),
>
> Now I know a lot of stuff is basically seismic (all that santorini
> stuff, the fact that Jericho was on a fault line etc.) but that only
> covers some of the odd things.
>
> Then there's Moses' son et lumiere while getting the 'tablets carved
> from stone' (by?), all those people 'ascending to heaven' in various
> pillars of light and fire, loads of art with funny flyin flaming
> chariots (including the hindu mahabharata [cannot spell that]) all
> sorts
> of prophets doing funny stuff...
>
> All to push religions trying to promote altruism, consideration and
> stability. Sort of a galactic IMF/UN?
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
> http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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