Re: virus: Newsweek - Science finds God

Joe E. Dees (jdees0@students.uwf.edu)
Sat, 1 Aug 1998 12:33:40 -0500


Date sent: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 18:02:36 +0100
To: virus@lucifer.com
From: Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: virus: Newsweek - Science finds God
Send reply to: virus@lucifer.com

> In message <35C2DD35.243E@trinidad.net>, Hakeeb A. Nandalal
> <nanco@trinidad.net> writes
> >
> >Is atheism a meme or is it IMHO a refusal to accept a theist meme?
> >Is it fair to say that not believing in God is an ideology?
>
> Atheism is more than merely not believing in God.
> It is not as if you had never encountered the <God>
> meme -- you have, and you've decided, for various
> reasons, whose validity is presently irrelevant, to
> reject it. Those reasons, and the behavioural
> effects of viewing yourself as an atheist, most
> certainly constitute a meme-complex.
>
> Agnosticism is the refusal to host either pro- or
> anti-God memes -- but even agnosticism is a meme.
> --
> Robin

If everything is a meme, then there is nothing a meme is not, and
therefore the term "meme" is rendered meaningless, for it cannot be
defined by comparison or contrast. If we can't say what a meme is
NOT, we can't say what it IS.