>How can you have a religion without a deity?
>From an atheist's point of view, ALL religions are religions with a deity.
Religion is a cultural expression of values and ideas which are fundemental
to its adherants. It differs from a "mere" philosophy in that it is
directly engaged with its adherant's day-to-day lives, and it is not limited
to a single realm of thought (such as, say, economics for example).
>Where can I read about memetic theory?
Doesn't the "Virion Reading List" cover this? It should.
>What is the Virus stance on abortion,
This should be based on the long-term genetic/memetic effects of abortion on
home sapians. Personally, I see these effects as minimal. So minimal, in
fact, I could see Virus' stance as being "We don't care about this issue.
It's emotional and has little effect on our overall goals."
>welfare,
Welfare is an attempt by our memes to compensate for the brutality of our
genes and the environment in which we live. I see it as needed in some
form, but (in the USA at least) it is counter-productive in its current
form. Changes in the welfare system should attempt to enable recipients to
enrich their memes, not just continue on their gene lines. The memes/genes
of the recipient cannot be made dependant on the welfare system by the
welfare system.
>death penalty,
Death Rules! :-) When the state kills someone, it is (usually) extingishing
their memes and possibly their genes. Is this desirable? Does the meme
complex of "If you perform such and such an act, we will kill you." work?
What are our alternatives?
>Hegel
Spell it backwards and it's Legeh!
>How does art fit into Virus?
To me, art is part of any religion. Perhaps we should begin an art
collection which reflects Virus' values.
Here's one I'd like to add to the list:
>environment.
Humans are destroying the environment at an amazing rate. This destruction
is directly or indirectly a result of our memes. The "Capitalism" meme
complex directly destroys the environment through the exploitation of these
resources. Combined with the "Medicine" meme complex, it has produced
massive over-population because people now live longer, but (most) remain
poor. The poor reproduce much faster than the middle or upper income people
do. Clearly some "Memetic Engineering" is desperately needed in this area.
Thanks,
Dave Leeper
dleeper@sybase.com
"The Blue Sky is an Illusion created by the Sun to hide an Infinite Black
Void." - David Leeper
-------------------
At 10:28 AM 10/31/95 -0500, Andy Cheyne Service-LL wrote:
>As you might remember, I had similar questions when I joined the mailing
>list; several others have had, too. Do you think it would be helpful to
>work your response into an FAQ for the Virus page?
Excellent suggestion. Does anyone have suggestions for questions,
or dare I ask, answers?
Offhand I can think of the following (received on the list or through
private mail) which may be good candidates:
Is this some kind of twisted joke?
Isn't a rational atheist an oxymoron?
Is Virus a Satanic cult?
How can you have a religion without a deity?
What is evolutionary epistemology (pancritical rationalism, PCR)?
Where can I read about memetic theory?
What is the Virus stance on [abortion, welfare, death penalty, Hegel, etc.]?
What is the goal of Virus?
How does art fit into Virus?
--
David McFadzean dbm@merak.com
Memetic Engineer http://www.merak.com/~dbm/
Merak Projects Ltd.