I've just been reading an essay by Susan Blackmore (psychologist and author of books such as 'The Meme Machine'). In it she writes:
'In spite of education and rational thought, and in spite of the harm done by religious war and oppression, it seems generally hard for people to live without religion.'
Quotes like this illustrate how as a group atheists are just as prone to words of arrogant piety as anyone else, but that's not the point I want to bring out here.
Blackmore has written extensively about 'memes'. Whilst the name 'meme' may sound exotic the fundamental thesis is very simple. A meme is basicaly 'an idea'. The big revelation is that some ideas do well and prosper, others fall by the wayside. Hardly anything earth shattering.
To be fair though the suggestion that a meme can be thought of in ways similar to a gene is helpful. Like genes, ideas can be replicated, altered and spread through the population. They undergo a kind of natural selection too.
The punch-line Blackmore suggests is that many aspects of culture like language, music, art, and religion are merely products of the selfish meme. Its a moot point, but for our purposes here lets go with it. Let me raise two issues.
'In spite of education and rational thought, and in spite of the harm done by religious war and oppression, it seems generally hard for people to live without religion.'
Quotes like this illustrate how as a group atheists are just as prone to words of arrogant piety as anyone else, but that's not the point I want to bring out here.
Blackmore has written extensively about 'memes'. Whilst the name 'meme' may sound exotic the fundamental thesis is very simple. A meme is basicaly 'an idea'. The big revelation is that some ideas do well and prosper, others fall by the wayside. Hardly anything earth shattering.
To be fair though the suggestion that a meme can be thought of in ways similar to a gene is helpful. Like genes, ideas can be replicated, altered and spread through the population. They undergo a kind of natural selection too.
The punch-line Blackmore suggests is that many aspects of culture like language, music, art, and religion are merely products of the selfish meme. Its a moot point, but for our purposes here lets go with it. Let me raise two issues.
Firstly, even if all of the above are the products of the evolution of memes it doesn't stop them being true. This is where her logic seems to short-circuit. Take music for example. The mathematics of melodies, harmonies and rhythms are easily established and so the difference between music and just noise is quantifiable. Even if, as Blackmore suggests, it took memes to discover it - music is still 'true'.
This point is rammed home when you get to what many people think of as being the holy grail of reason - science. Well, our scientific understanding can thought of as being nothing more than the product of an arms race between memes. Our understanding that the earth travels round the sun is a very effective meme. Is it then simply the product of our collective imagination? Of course not. More than just a meme it is actually true.
The same ultimately applies to religion. Even if it was memes that first uncovered religiosity, it was because it was there to be discovered in the first place.
Secondly, and much more succinctly, we musn't forget that most (all?) of our meme's come from external sources. For those of us who 'believe' its obvious that one of those sources is God. Religious ideas can well be thought of as a pool of memes going round our minds. It doesn't stop them being true, and it doesn't stop them being from God.
Blackmore highlights how easy it is to fall into the trap of reductionism. She has one eye peering down a reductionist microscope, and the other is tight shut.
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