Keith Devens .com

Memetic themes as applied to religion

Adam Langley: Memes.

I don't think memes/genes are conscious, but I do think that, as replicators, they can exert a powerful influence to aid their replications. You can often pick out features in memeplexes (a set of interacting memes which can be functionally treated as a whole) designed as an `immune system' etc. For example the Christian ideas of "I am the one true god, worship no other" and of faith seem (to me) to fit into that category.

Since I'm making value judgements about moral systems I must have some built in morality (memes) which almost certainly come from my upbringing. My upbringing is mostly Christian, but not strongly so. My parents don't go to church etc so I have a pretty common Western set (don't kill people, be nice etc).

However, I feel the need to justify those memes and I flat out reject the theistic aspects of Christianity. I also reject some of those upbringing moral memes. So either I have `scientific model' memes too or something is built in.

He's right, it is kind of rambling . He also seems to be using a lot of jargon which I don't think is helpful, but then, I'm not familiar with "memetic theory". Regardless there's a ton to discuss here. Not right now though, not at 2 in the morning.

Permalink | 6 Comments | Tags: Religion | id 2560

01:53 (utc-4)
edited: 21:16 (utc-4)