Religious Proselytization Memes

[bsh...@raleigh.ibm.com]

I am struck by the notion that religious proselytes seem to be totally controlled
by their memes. This led me to ponder whether indeed my own personal
preferences were merely the manifestation of my memes. If I weren't so
prejudiced towards linguistic communications, I would lean towards drawing
a conclusion that religious inspiration is merely another name for meme sex.

[H Keith Henson]

bsh...@raleigh.ibm.com wrote:
: I am struck by the notion that religious proselytes seem to be totally

: controlled
: by their memes. This led me to ponder whether indeed my own personal
: preferences were merely the manifestation of my memes.

You don't have to take such an extreme view. I strongly recommend
Marvin Minsky's *Society of Mind.* Minsky advances the concept that
minds are made of vast numbers of smaller parts, which he calls
"agents." A good fraction of these agents can be considered to have
been created or programmed by memes. But just because you have agents
for stacking blocks, or curing bacon, or praying does not necessarily
mean you are "controlled" by these agents. But this "controlled"
factor lies along a continum, some people *are* profoundly influenced
in their actions, even to actions which kill them, by memes.

If I weren't so
: prejudiced towards linguistic communications, I would lean towards drawing
: a conclusion that religious inspiration is merely another name for meme sex.

The above is too terse for me to comment. Could you expand on it?
Thanks, Keith Henson

PS, if any of you are interested in a memetic battle between the
meme set of Scientology and various meta memes which come into
play when a meme set goes beyond the point of fair competition
in the memetic ecosystem, try reading alt.religion.scientology for
a few days.