Richard
Dawkins sold a million copies of his first book, made millions of dollars and
his subsequent books fetched him further millions. All of this because he titled
his book Selfish Gene.
Well,
I am not expecting anything in the millions to accrue to me through this post.
But perhaps a couple of dozen hits?
People
misunderstood Dawkins. He was not endorsing the selfish gene. He was saying
what the truth is, about evolution, what the mechanism is. He identified the
basic characteristic of a gene – to be selfish. He used selfishness as a metaphor
for how genes establish themselves, come together, compete and cooperate with
each other, propagate themselves, and even morph. Genes do not have a
personality. But, if they did, no one would hesitate to tag them selfish.
What
was there to misunderstand in this simple message, particularly when he said
that once we understand how genes operate we can work to overcome the ill
effects of their selfishness?
People
thought that the author was establishing genetic determinacy of behaviour even
when he was nowhere in that neighborhood. Towards the end of the book, Dawkins
floated the idea of a second replicator (the function of a gene is to replicate
itself), the meme. He suggested that as a cultural meme, but without defining
it.
While
Dawkins mentioned melodies, fashion and skills learned by copying as memes, he left
out religion, for some inexplicable reason. Later, he tagged religion as a
virus. I find this strange. A virus has to operate within a living cell,
reproduce itself only by parasitizing the host cell’s machinery. On this score
alone, religion fails as a virus.
Ask
any religious person about religion. The first words out of her mouth, “It is sui generis”. Religion is one of a kind.
It has no parallels. It exists of its own. It does not parasitize. Ergo, it is
not a virus.
To
prove that religion is a meme, a cultural counterpart of gene, I have to show that
associated with religions are variation, mutation, competition and inheritance.
I am truly embarrassed to be given such a simple task.
In
Hinduism, at least among Tamil Vaishnavites, some sport the “Y” mark on their
forehead, and others the “U”. If that is not variation, what is? Amongst Tamil
Brahmins as a whole, some wear horizontal stripes of ash and others wear either
“U” or “Y” of “Holy soil” (Thirumann).
Variations doubled.
Coming
to mutations, I take you to Christianity. Roman Catholics, various Orthodoxes
(doesn’t that sound funny?), Calvinists, Baptists, Methodists, Seventh Day
Adventists, Anglicans … Amongst Muslims, Shia and Sunny. Even among Buddhists,
the original has mutated to Theravada, Mahayana, their offshoots and such.
Likewise in Jainism. The cults of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sai Baba et al.
Competition.
Amongst religions. Need I say more?
Inheritance.
Religion is inherited from parents. And, it is a Himalayan task to wean a child
away from this evil inheritance.
It
is now established that religion is a cultural version of a gene – a meme. This
was done so easily. A gene does nothing more than replicate itself and the
vehicle is the organism. Likewise, religion is a meme that exists only to
replicate itself and the vehicle is the human brain. The religious meme is selfish
to the core. If it can exist outside of a human brain, it would not care whether
the latter existed or not. There is a disconcerting thought behind that
statement – will artificial intelligence be invaded by the religious meme? Hope
not. I would want everyone working on artificial intelligence to be an atheist!
It
is only when the human brain goes extinct can religious meme be extinguished.
But, we would not want that, would we? Therefore, we have to live with
religion, just as we have to live with genes. And, if humanity is to retain its
sanity, it has to continuously fight the religious meme. Dawkins is doing it
and I am also trying to contribute.
Genes
are selfish and so is the religious meme. When Dawkins called genes selfish, he
sold million copies. When I am calling religion selfish, can I expect, say, a
score hits?
Raghuram
Ekambaram
4 comments:
"It is only when the human brain goes extinct can religious meme be extinguished." What about people like you and me (and quite many others) who don't believe in religion? Is our brain going extinct? :)
The religious meme should indeed be very selfish. Otherwise we won't be able to explain the kind of stupidity perpetrated in its name century after century...
I learn the real meaning of words form your posts..meme is analogous to genes..yes religion is inevitably self oriented and works for its survival.. brilliant post....
Matheikal,
Yes, you caught me ... I did not make it clear that the "human brain" I referred to is the brain of the species and not of the individual organism. Dawkins's original contribution was disspelling this imprecise usage in survival of whom, the organism, the species or the genes.
It is a shame that when taking reference from Dawkins I allowed myself to introduce this level confusion.
Thanks a lot.
RE
Dear DS Sir,
AS you point out, then whence the shiboleth that religion cares for or helps humanity, when it really cares only for itself.
Thanks for apprecaiting.
RE
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