Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id FAA12454 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 12 Jan 2002 05:40:49 GMT X-Originating-IP: [209.240.222.132] From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: playing at suicide Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 00:36:21 -0500 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F87ig4WrEvWRypCyfVA00005ba4@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 12 Jan 2002 05:36:21.0953 (UTC) FILETIME=[11516310:01C19B2B] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>From: "Philip Jonkers" <PHILIPJONKERS@prodigy.net>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Subject: Re: playing at suicide
>Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 02:26:30 -0500
>
>--- Original Message ---
>From: "Wade T. Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
>To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
>Subject: Re: playing at suicide
>
> >On 01/09/02 02:41, Philip Jonkers said this-
> >
> >>I once again return to one of the true
> >>(practical) values of religion, a social glue.
> >
> >Religion is one of a very varied and multifarious set
>of glues that
> >society can use. And IMHO one of the worst.
>
>Religion is hopelessly outdated and obsolete in modern
>society. This is reflected by the Pope admitting
>more and more scienctific truisms in catholic
>religion. If we want to reach unity as a people
>world-wide, religion is the foremost obstacle that
>has to be eliminated. Since the vast majority of
>humans adhere to some sort of religion this is
>a truly daunting task. I doubt if it will ever be
>feasible, all the more since it seems that religion
>is ingrained in the human brain.
>
By ingrained are you implying a genetically based predisposition for
religion? If so, this assumption bears on what you say below. Or maybe you
meant ingrained in the sense of people growing up with the ideas their
entire life, so that these ideas become part of their psychic fabric.
>
>Maybe after many
>generations of enlightenment it may get evolved out.
>
>
By what mechanism would many generations of enlightment evolve a
(genetically based?) religious predisposition out of the human psyche? Could
this elimination of religious predisposition occur in a universal manner
throughout the human population of Earth? Would there be harsh selection
pressure for such an eliminative evolutionary shift in religiously biasing
alleles or would they drift out in such a large population? Maybe in the
absence of selection (if there is actually any for religiously biasing
alleles) mutations which eliminate the bias could accumulate without
detriment?
Were you thinking of some neo-Lamarckian mechanism where disuse of the
religious faculty results in its deterioration?
Religious ideas of various stripes could eventually wither away and people
would probably worship other things, like chicken wings (sorry I'm trying to
stop eating fattening wings and they keep calling out to me...something in
my EEA make-up I suppose).
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