Contagious ideas hitch a ride in infected brains
Imagine Martian biologists coming to Earth and
looking around. Among the many things that would puzzle them and fascinate them
would be the Vatican and Mecca.
Imagine Martian biologists coming to Earth and looking around. Among the many things that would puzzle them and fascinate them would be the Vatican and Mecca.
Another would be the one species, Homo sapiens, that engages in stupendous outlays of time, energy and money, devoting their lives to these very expensive projects. Among their questions would be: “Why are they doing this? What is this for? How did all of this religion originate? After all, it hasn’t always been here. It had to evolve somehow. What is it for? How does it perpetuate itself?”
Human culture can influence the biological or genetic basis of behavior, and can modulate the selective environment from which we get our genes. But we also have to understand that human culture is itself one of the fruits of the tree of life. Its own evolution and design have to be explained, ultimately, in biological terms.
Zoologist Richard Dawkins introduced the controversial term meme for such replicating ideas. There are some significant scientific problems with the concept of memes, but I think we can salvage at least the skeleton of the idea and put it to some rather unusual use in looking at the evolution of religions over a long period of time.
Dawkins and Dennett are not only a world-class source for seminal information on biology and zoology, they offer a stellar challenge to cultural leftovers from the Dark Ages.
Posted: Sat - February 4, 2006 at 07:21 AM