Welcome aboard.
> Can morality, and the entire system of ethical behavior within a given
>religion or culture, be considered a meme?
Yes. The most important thing to remember when analyzing memes and
meme-complexes is who is spreading the meme. Unfortunatly, a great
deal of meme are transmitted just because they transmit. These memes
might not have any basis in fact, but they spread well, and so survive.
>As AIDS becomes more common, it occurs to me that morality
>may become more traditional and restrictive due to the
>counterselection of memes.
I certainly hope not! Actually, I'm not too worried about it. I don't
think
that we will ever go back to that horrid set of so called 'morals' that
were propogated by the various offshoots of Christianity.
>Homosexuality (and the subtle influences which promote it, both genetic
>and due to environmentally transmitted memes i.e. contact with
>homosexuals) would now be selecte4d against for multiple reasons.
I doubt this strongly. Homosexuality isn't the largest spreader of AIDS.
Promiscuity and needle swapping are. These two behaviors will probably
be selected against. Although, it seems that the promiscuity drive might be
able to overcome the survival drive. There are definite cases of the smack
drive overcoming the survival drive.
>It is, however, difficult to think of an evolutionary
>advantage to memes which, for instance, require burnt offerings of food
>or massive donations to charity.
>From the view point of the priest-class, memes that require offering of food
or donations are not only useful, but linked to their survival. That's the
point,
priests don't really care about your survival. They are more concerned with
their own.
CA Cook, LF
coreycook12@email.msn.com