| o | This article is, to a certain extent, thinking out loud and wild speculation. God, memes and GenesReligion, in various forms, is to be found all over the planet. Wherever there are people who think that there is some reason or purpose behind events, life, death and so on, there will be some sort of religion. Theists vastly outnumber atheists. Does this mean that atheism is somehow wrong? Considering the fact that all the religions tend to disagree with each other on basic issues such as the nature of God (god or goddess? monotheism, polytheism or pantheism?), God's plans for us, God's way of working, the way God should be worshipped, the contents of God's Holy Book(s), it becomes obvious that they cannot all be true. "Mutually exclusive" describes the religions reasonably well, and often even applies to various sects and denominations within any one religion.Which, if any, of the religions is the correct one is something for the reader to decide personally. In this article I'm thinking about how and why religions manage to keep going. How do they survive for so long, and "infect" so many people. The language of genes, memes and natural selection applies quite well to this, and so I shall use it. It is unlikely that there is any sort of "Hinduism gene" or "Christianity gene", but it may be the case that certain sets of genes predispose people to becoming susceptible to certain types of memes. Religions are extremely potent memes, and can propagate themselves through the medium of intelligent minds very rapidly, until they come to dominate entire countries or continents. Apart from other religions, one of the main "enemies" of a religion is skeptical, critical, rational, inquiring thought. If people accept what they are taught completely uncritically, their minds are open to be filled with pretty much anything (which, if you want to start a religion, is a good reason to get 'em while they're young). Part of the meme-complex of a religion is a meme that helps to reduce dissent, criticism, questioning etc. Think of atheists and theists as containing slightly different sets of memes. The religious-meme produces a selective pressure against dissenters, atheists, and skeptics. Memes within the religion that help to reduce atheism (by banishment, death, bullying and so on) will spread, as they are backed up by the other memes within the religion and they reduce the number of atheists that would otherwise prevent their spreading. With the reduction of atheists, the genes that make people susceptible to the religious memes will spread, allowing even more room for the memes. There may still be plenty of "skeptic" genes (resistant to religious memes) in the gene pool, but in many cases skeptics can be intimidated in a largely religious population, and just go along with the flow. In many places today, expressing atheist thoughts can get you in big trouble (if not actually killed - I received an email from a person in an Islamic country, which read "I am afraid of being called an atheist or agnostic. People could even kill me if they know it."). Many people may go through the pretense of believing to ensure a quiet life. This may help to spread their genes, but their skeptical memes will eventually die with them. Meme of Doom!Few, if any, creatures are generally suicidal. Those that are, or at least willingly perform actions that risk certain death, can be explained in terms of Selfish Gene theory (see Further Reading below). Creatures generally do their utmost to survive as long as possible, and those situations where they do apparently risk death often involve the propagation of their own genes. The genes survive, even if the individual does not.The faith-meme can often completely overwhelm the self-interest of the genes, and cause people to do things with serve the needs of the meme rather than the genes. (Richard Dawkins gives the example of celibacy in priests, for example : the genes of a celibate priest are going nowhere, but his memes are constantly spreading to fertile young minds. As far as the religion-meme is concerned, his time is better spent preaching than parenting.) Also, we see people who willingly allow themselves to be sacrificed to a deity, or give up money and possessions to help a church, as well as martyrs from all religions (and of course others who are willing to die for a cause). It seems that small-scale sacrifices (including individual deaths) help to strengthen and spread the meme. It demonstrates to others the apparent validity and power of the meme, and can also help the meme to spread at the expense (financial altruism or bodily sacrifice) of a number of its adherents. Sometimes it can go badly wrong. In this case, large scale death often results in the death of the actual meme as well as those who carry it. Maybe this happens if the meme mutates too rapidly, or is altered in a deranged brain? Charismatic leaders (meme-sources) can effectively spread a dangerous meme to many people. Examples of this include the Heaven's Gate cult, the Branch Davidians, Jonestown and so on. The meme infects a group of people, and they all gather together, causing the meme to inbreed with itself until a mutation for group suicide arises. Some people may kill themselves due to their beliefs (memes), but when these memes are restricted to a small group (an inbreeding meme pool) with a charismatic leader it can result in the entire group committing suicide (and possibly even taking with them those who might still be reluctant). In the run-up to the year 2000CE, as the perceived "Endtimes" are seen to approach, memes based on extreme chiliasm seem to often end up like this. They're like an epidemic of 'flu virus. The mutant, destructive meme has run its course and burns out, taking the infected genetic and memetic hosts with it. It could be argued that we don't see suicidal genes, so why should we see suicidal memes? One big difference is that memes spread and evolve far more rapidly, as they exist in the medium of our thought processes. Genes only spread through physical, sexual reproduction, but a meme can literally spread at the speed of sound. A meme can easily be passed on to a new host without their consent. (Try whistling the Monty Python theme tune in your office, and see how many people are doing it by the end of the day.) Scientific breakthroughFor thousands of years, religion has been a dominant force in human society. The twentieth century has seen a massive increase in the development of technology (aircraft, cars, computers, space travel, communications, television, radio and internet).Could it be that genes/memes for skepticism and science (finding out about the world by thought and experiment rather than revelation) increased very slowly but inexorably until they were able to reach some sort of critical mass, and then spread extremely rapidly (earlier examples of this sort of leap may include the Renaissance and the philosopher/scientists of Ancient Greece). Maybe we are now in the early stages of scientific "domination" and the mass decline of religious thinking? Maybe this happens and then religion incorporates the findings of science (for instance, the fact that the Earth orbits the Sun) which has the effect of repressing science once more ("nature does it" becomes "God did it" again)? As a modern example of this, creationists are beginning to not only accept the Big Bang, but are starting to use it as proof of Biblical Creation. How long before they include evolution as well, I wonder? Could science finally be able to move too quickly for religion to keep up (and assimilate it), or will science get so complex that religion becomes easier to understand and people still turn to religion anyway? I read once that you need to study maths for about fifteen years before you can really get to grips with quantum mechanics. Who has the time for that, when crops have to be harvested? When physicists start talking about ten-dimensional vibrating strings and membranes, virtual particles and entangled photons, "God did it" is so much easier for the majority of people to deal with. Science needs to be popularised, but when this treads on religious grounds it will be criticised for doing so. A balance needs to be struck so that people can see for themselves that the scientific explanation is reasonable, rational and comprehensible - and more satisfying. This might not easy as scientific frontiers advance. The God Of The Gaps may be getting smaller, but he might also be getting more appealing. For centuries, the lack of scientific knowledge has ensured that the atheistic position was always hard to demonstrate (other than philosophically), and theists often won (sometimes by simple force of numbers, and general ignorance of the populace). The current dramatic increase in scientific understanding allows the skeptical position to be vastly stronger (now you can clearly show why you do not believe, and show the flaws in the theistic position more readily). Information technology allows for the spread of the skeptical message much more readily and clearly. An atheist who can support his point of view (using evolution, geology, cosmology and so on) is now likely to gain more respect when he comes out of the closet. Atheists can now show to others that their lack of belief is based on demonstrable reality as well as the previous tools of philosophy, logic and reason. Expect to see religions incorporating modern science, as their memes vie for survival with the inexorable spread of critical thought. © Adrian Barnett, 1999 |