Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id VAA15920 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 12 Feb 2002 21:46:40 GMT Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020212163200.02c85580@pop.cogeco.ca> X-Sender: hkhenson@pop.cogeco.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 16:43:20 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@cogeco.ca> Subject: RE: Memes Meta-Memes and Politics 1 of 3 (1988, updates 2002) In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D245@inchna.stir.ac.uk > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 12:12 PM 12/02/02 +0000, Vincent wrote:
> >>Ah, the eternal question of classifying god in memetics terms.
>For many >>the belief in god is the meme, for some the concept of god is the
>meme, >>for others it is the instanciation of god through ritual and
>doctrine that >>are the memes.
>
> <I don't see any reason to make such fine differentiations. It is
>all minor variations on a theme of the big alpha male in the sky.>
>
> The reason for differentiation all comes from whether you argue that
>memes can be beliefs, ideas, or artefacts/behaviours. Some think that all
>three are memes. Those of us in the last group though don't accept 'belief
>in god' or the 'idea of god' to be memes at all. They are already well
>described as beliefs and ideas respectively for us g-meme supporters.
The only common factor of memes is the information. Using baseball as an
example, the meme is contained in the brains of those who know how to play,
in rule books, could be contained in video tape. Any of these sources
could be used to teach a group of children how to play.
"God" is a component of most western religious memes (or schemes of
memes--I don't find the distinction very useful). As such it is replicated
well over a billion times. As I have mentioned before in my discussions of
baseball, one way to determine that a person "has" a meme is to see if they
can teach it. As is rather well known :-) this is certainly a feature of
cult or religious class memes.
Sorry I missed the earlier discussion. I find it very had to imagine an
understanding of memes which would leave out religious memes.
Keith
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