3.3. Christianity
Religions represent some of the most powerful and elaborate meme
complexes in existence today; they have evolved
over millennia into countless variants and co- evolved with cultures.
Making a complete memetic analysis of even a
single religion is beyond the scope of this paper, so by necessity
the following discussion will be rather general.
Religions tend to consist of some basic core memes (in the case of
Christianity the belief in God and salvation through
Christ) surrounded by symbiotic doctrinary memes (how salvation
can be reached, ethical systems, the cosmology) and
then an immense cloud of related memes (religious stories,
doctrines, interpretations). These memes form a symbiotic
whole; the core memes need symbiotic memes to provide hooks and
baits, and the symbiotic memes reinforce each other
and are given legitimacy by the core memes.
3.3.1. Properties of the Meme
The Christianity meme complex has throughout history been
transmitted in a multitude of forms: as oral stories, through
books and art, through example and through upbringing. Due to its
complexity the transmission takes time and is closely
linked to cultural understanding. This either requires a relatively
concentrated effort to transmit the complex (mission) or
to spread it by cultural diffusion and imitation (upbringing). A
frequent diffusion situation is when a child is brought up in
a Christian home. The Christian meme complex is presented as the
truth about how the world functions. Variants of the
meme have increased their fitness by encouraging a high rate of
reproduction and cultural transmission (Lynch 1996).
Most major religions rely on active transmission: one or more hosts
actively supports the spread of the meme, often in an
interactive and deliberate way. Efficient methods for mission have
co-evolved with the religion and the situation; the best
missionaries gained the most converts, among which were the next
generation of missionaries (and missionary teachers)
who would learn and spread some of their best methods.
Classically, Christianity have used the bait of salvation (freedom
from fear, personal happiness and prosperity, spiritual
fulfilment, eternal life or union with God have all been promoted at
various time) combined with the threat of damnation
to promote interest and infection. This is however just the explicit
bait, it appears likely that many Christian movements
have been spread by implicit factors such as a sense of belonging,
social conformity and a consistent world-view. It is
worth noting that the baits and threats are mostly based on the
symbiotic memes and not the core memes of the complex,
which means their relative prevalence can change to fit the situation
(for example the ratio of hellfire threats to salvation
baits used in sermons) or they can evolve while leaving the core
memes unchanged.
Religions are often better than other meme complexes (such as
science) at explaining how the world works on an
emotional level. They provide answers to existential questions that
are emotionally appealing, creating a satisfying world
model (which then becomes intellectually satisfying regardless of its
consistency due to cognitive dissonance). Because
religions seldom try to empirically prove themselves they cannot be
disproved, which further aids their stability. A
religion can spread regardless of the truth or falsity of its claims.
The Christianity meme contains an entire world-view, and seeks to
cause an accommodation in the schemata of the
infected host; no other memes are allowed to influence high-level
planning and behaviour ("Ye cannot serve God and
Mammon", Matthew 24). This is achieved by rejecting such memes
or impulses as 'against God's will', 'sinful' or
'satanic'.
Like all the other major world religions, Christianity has a strong
mission. It both exists as an explicit missionary order
and in the form of an implicit altruistic hook (see the section about
hooks and motivation). Christians are urged to set
good examples to others, which also increases the likelihood of
transmission through social learning.
