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Christianity as Memetic System
Steve Mizrach (SEEKER1@NERVM.NERDC.UFL.EDU)
Fri, 4 Feb 1994 07:41:07 -0500
system, I shall now proceed to demonstrate aforesaid. For those of you who
belong to this memetic system, I am not singling you out; I could go
through this exercise for any memetic system, including but not limited to
: Marxism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Libertarianism, Objectivism, Cultural
Materialism, Idealism, Discordianism, Environmentalism, Feminism,
Confucianism, Taoism, or Pragmatism.
I had said that one could envision memes as items of programming code.
Clearly the program "Christianity" found in the system environment "Western
Tradition" is too long a code, with so many memes, to be described here.
Hence I will single out a particular meme in the program
"Christianity" found often in the meme complex (sysenvironment) "Western
civilization."
* DEF Person = (Christian, non-Christian)
* DEF Afterlife = (Heaven, Hell)
* FUNCTION Final_Destination: Afterlife (Person)
IF Person = Christian (this argument is frequently evaluated
by such other variables as Baptized (person), Accepts Creed (person), etc.)
THEN Final_Destination := Heaven
ELSE Final_Destination := Hell;
This particular meme changed in the Middle Ages:
*FUNCTION Final_Destination (Person)
IF Person = Christian
THEN Final_Destination := Heaven
ELSE IF Church_Was_Given_Proper_Tithes = TRUE
THEN Final_Destination := Purgatory
ELSE Final_Destination:= Hell;
The addition of the value (Purgatory) to variable type (Afterlife) is one
of the memetic mutations of which I spoke. Whether this modification of
code aided in the propagation of the memetic system is arguable.
Please note that any similarities between memetic code and PASCAL are
purely coincidental.
Seeker1 [@Nervm.Nerdc.Ufl.Edu] (real info available on request)
Anthropologist, Cybernaut, PoMoDemite, Noetician, Situationiste, et al.
University of Florida, Gainesville, Cosmic Nexus of the Universal Matrix
"'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds!" --Malaclypse the Younger
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