I mentioned in another post that I felt that within society, a religon meme could eventually evolve into something more enlightened: what I have decided to call a "philosophical religon". This is a religon which does not dictate what you believe, but rather affects how you act and how you view the world. I am of the opinion that a truly symbiotic religon would have to be a philosophical religon: anything which dictates what you believe, on any subject, begats dogma and stifles inquiry. (I don't limit this statement to religion, by the way, but it is the primary culprit)
Although I identify as an agnostic atheist, I am also something else: A philosophical Taoist. Although I do not subscribe to the superstitious beliefs of Taoism (there's not many: Taoism is already very close to a philosophical religon), its view of reality, way of living and many other things are something that I accept wholeheartedly. The Yin and Yang is the most well known Taoist symbol. I'll elaborate further if anyone is interested in Taoism.
So I began to wonder: assuming Christianity evolved along the same lines, what would a "Philosophical Christianity" be like?
There are some things that would remain detrimental. "We're all wretched sinners" would be transmogrified into general low self-esteem, and the general deference and obedience to authority that is such a fundamental part of christianity would never go away.
And we'd have to do away with the first two commandments: "Worship me" and "No idols for you" are both gone. But, "Blasphemy" could be changed to a general 'refrain from swearing in polite conversation' way, and the "sabbath" becomes the weekend. All the rest are perfectly decent, although we should note that "adultery" means "adultery" and "kill" means "kill": lust and hatred don't get a mention.
Being more christ-like would mean being generous with your posessions, loving everyone no matter their flaws and always being willing to sacrifice for the sake of others.
Jesus's admonitions against hatred and lust would become simple distaste for these things: a preference to avoid them. And the morals and ethics behind most of his stories would come to the fore, rather than the miracles and magic tricks.
And so on...
I reckon that many modern christians already treat christianity like this, as a philosophical religon, which is a major part of the reason I am always careful to distinguish "creationism" from "christianity".
What do you think?
Showing posts with label meme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meme. Show all posts
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Christitis
Religon as a disease.
The concept of a meme, first proposed by Richard Dawkins in "the selfish gene", has become a popular way of describing many sociological traits. In the same way as genetic traits 'fight' to survive in a population, by adapting through mutation and out-competing other traits via natural selection, social trends adapt to new situations in the same way, albeit at a much faster pace.
Religon is one of the most obvious forms of meme, and is also one which very closely parallels it's biological namesake: it is hereditary (passed onto offspring of those who have it), it is functional (directly influences significant behavior) and it can be influenced by random mutation.
But it also parrallels something else, not genetic: a virus or parasite. It can spread from host to host, and each host (actively or subtly) spreads it to new hosts. It feeds off of the victim, sometimes making them invest large amounts of energy in simply helping it reproduce. And it is often detrimental to the survival of the victim themselves, although in some situations (normally situations engineered by the religon itself, such as the Bible Belt or the Middle East) it can be beneficial, and exist in a symbiotic relationship with the host. An example of this latter behavior at its finest is Buddhism.
It is most like a science fiction version of a retrovirus, which implants it's own (still functioning) DNA into the genome of the victim, and becomes hereditable.
In the past, although there have been some minor attempts to create an 'antidote' to the retrovirus of religon (natural philosophy), the virus was very quick in suppressing these attempts. It has mostly been kept in check by the fact that there are a large number of religons all competing for hosts, although recently science has begun to erode it's ability to attach and remain attached to individuals.
A variant, or subtrait/subspecies of religon, known as 'fundumentalism', is particulary vulnerable to science's erosion attacks due to being much less adaptable than is usual. Despite religons built in defences against it, this subspecies has begun to go extinct, at least in some types of religon. It's dying throes are even hurting it's more adaptable cousin: people tend to associate the vocal antics of fundumentalists with religon in general, causing some people to throw off the retrovirus and open themselves to unadulterated reality.
What will eventually become of this strange hereditable virus? Only time will tell, but it has proven itself surprisingly adaptable in the past. My hope is that it will adapt into a philosophical position: a set of ethics and morals that govern our attitudes towards each other, and nothing more. Such would be a perfect sybiotic relationship for humanity and it's long time mental parasite.
Of course, religon also has disturbing parallels to the Headcrab from the Half-Life series, but... well... we'd prefer not to go into that.
The concept of a meme, first proposed by Richard Dawkins in "the selfish gene", has become a popular way of describing many sociological traits. In the same way as genetic traits 'fight' to survive in a population, by adapting through mutation and out-competing other traits via natural selection, social trends adapt to new situations in the same way, albeit at a much faster pace.
Religon is one of the most obvious forms of meme, and is also one which very closely parallels it's biological namesake: it is hereditary (passed onto offspring of those who have it), it is functional (directly influences significant behavior) and it can be influenced by random mutation.
But it also parrallels something else, not genetic: a virus or parasite. It can spread from host to host, and each host (actively or subtly) spreads it to new hosts. It feeds off of the victim, sometimes making them invest large amounts of energy in simply helping it reproduce. And it is often detrimental to the survival of the victim themselves, although in some situations (normally situations engineered by the religon itself, such as the Bible Belt or the Middle East) it can be beneficial, and exist in a symbiotic relationship with the host. An example of this latter behavior at its finest is Buddhism.
It is most like a science fiction version of a retrovirus, which implants it's own (still functioning) DNA into the genome of the victim, and becomes hereditable.
In the past, although there have been some minor attempts to create an 'antidote' to the retrovirus of religon (natural philosophy), the virus was very quick in suppressing these attempts. It has mostly been kept in check by the fact that there are a large number of religons all competing for hosts, although recently science has begun to erode it's ability to attach and remain attached to individuals.
A variant, or subtrait/subspecies of religon, known as 'fundumentalism', is particulary vulnerable to science's erosion attacks due to being much less adaptable than is usual. Despite religons built in defences against it, this subspecies has begun to go extinct, at least in some types of religon. It's dying throes are even hurting it's more adaptable cousin: people tend to associate the vocal antics of fundumentalists with religon in general, causing some people to throw off the retrovirus and open themselves to unadulterated reality.
What will eventually become of this strange hereditable virus? Only time will tell, but it has proven itself surprisingly adaptable in the past. My hope is that it will adapt into a philosophical position: a set of ethics and morals that govern our attitudes towards each other, and nothing more. Such would be a perfect sybiotic relationship for humanity and it's long time mental parasite.
Of course, religon also has disturbing parallels to the Headcrab from the Half-Life series, but... well... we'd prefer not to go into that.
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