On Sun, 13 Oct 1996 13:27:37 +0000 "Hakeeb A. Nandalal"
<nanco@trinidad.net> writes:
>I read in NewsWeek that one of the top Genetic Engineers
>working on the Human Genome project teaches Bible classes in his spare
>
>time. Can we differentiate between one "type" of brilliance versus
>another? These men are physics smart but "God meme" stupid?
The scholars and theologians in most any long-standing religious
tradition tend to have very different religious beliefs than the laity in
that same tradition. The "God meme" is often maintained in the minds of
the laity in conjunction with a memetic allergy to analytic thought.
This is definitely not true of most religious scholars. To maintain a
place in the cognitive architecture of minds like those of Augustine,
Thomas Aquinas, the current Pope, or any number of sharp-thinking
believers (and we all know at least one person who maintains both complex
rational thought processes as well as theistic belief) the "God meme"
must decouple itself from a memetic allergy to rationality.
For me, the problem area on which this line of thought treads is one of
memetic incompatibility. What makes two memes antithetical to one
another? We all know people who simultaneously hold ideas which are not
compatible with one another from a logical standpoint. Human brains seem
quite adroit at sustaining contradictory beliefs. Meme-complexes which
employ a meme-allergy to reason seem to encourage the host to sustain
contradictory beliefs. What is it that makes two meme-complexes
incompatible? Obviously, religious meme complexes and analytic ones like
the scientific method, both of which color one's perceptions to a
significant degree, can not only co-exist in the same individual, but
deeply integrate themselves into the memetic fabric of that individual's
consciousness.
On what basis do memes compete with one another? Human brains seem to
have finite storage capacity, so there would seem to be competition
between memes for this limited resource, but that would seem to pit all
memes against each other equally in a memetic free-for-all. That
doesn't seem to be the case. Some memes facilitate the propagation of
some memes and hinder the propagation of others, i.e. there seems to be
some memetic mechanisms which give rise to compatibility/incompatibility
relationships between memes, but I have no idea what those mechanisms
are.
What do you think?
Take care. -KMO