Have memes been scientifically proven?

by passwordprotected 35 Replies latest jw friends

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  Psychotic Parrot

  Password protected is a dick.

  He thinks atheism begins & ends with Dawkins, what a sad loser.
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  BurnTheShips

  I agree. Dawkins is a dick. However, I have just ordered Selfish Gene and Extended Phenotype.

  BTS
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  Psychotic Parrot

  I don't think Dawkins is a dick, but i resent absolute bible bashing tossers like Password protected going around spewing out crap. Asserting that people's atheistic or scientific worldview is based entirely on the ideas of one contemporary man. Completely contradicts the fact that atheism itself is an age old concept.

  Following one man's ideas or any limited number of people's ideas is the complete antithesis of science & atheism. And when Password Protect discovers his brain & wises up, he will realise this. Until then, he continues to live in darkness.
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  BurnTheShips

  Asserting that people's atheistic or scientific worldview is based entirely on the ideas of one contemporary man. Completely contradicts the fact that atheism itself is an age old concept.

  This is a false dilemma. There are many atheisms, as many as there are atheists. Yes, we can easily trace atheism back to the ancient Greeks and beyond, but to assert that the ideas of the New Atheists--which prominently includes Dawkins, Dennet, Hitchens and others--have not had a powerful influence on the ideas of many recent atheists and converted more than a few, is not realistic. This board over the years has been a chronicle of it.

  Following one man's ideas or any limited number of people's ideas is the complete antithesis of science & atheism.

  Perhaps, but few atheists follow their paths perfectly. And science is not a worldview or religion, either. Scientism, perhaps.

  BTS
• 

  drwtsn32

  So, my question about memes was simple; have they been scientifically proven?

  I don't think they have been "proven." They are a concept. Atheism is not dependent upon memes being proven scientifically. In actuality atheism is a position of non-belief. It is not dependent upon anything. Theism is a position that claims something (God exists) and is therefore a position that requires evidence.

  Belief in anything should be scientifically proven first, according to a Dawkinite's world view.

  I don't agree with this. Some ideas are not totally radical and are logically built on other proven ideas. If they are consistent with other knowledge they may be considered "potentially valid" even before being "proven" true. The amount of evidence required before an idea is given any credence is directly related to how "extraordinary" the claim is.

  Do you consider this meme idea to be "extraordinary"? I don't. And like I said, my current worldview is not dependent upon the idea of memes being proven or disproven. I find it wild that you compare the meme concept to the "existence of God." Isn't that concept quite critical to your worldview?

  Eerily similar to the flip flopping of the WTS)

  Sigh... here we go, comparing a side you disagree with as being "like the WTS." A favored, weak tactic of many JWN debaters.
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  Caedes

  Password protected,

  Wait a minute, you couldn't understand my comments comparing de-baptism and ex-cult members but are happy to conflate a belief in memes with atheism?! ROFLMAO

  I am begining to think you are being deliberately obtuse.