Tag Archives: memetics

Can Bacteria Help Us Understand Religion? Part 4: Religion – Symbiote or Parasite?

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Missed Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3?   Given that our world is plagued by religious conflict and cruelties, some antitheists have suggested that religion as a whole is a form of pathology. But as worried and angry as we … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Can Bacteria Help Us Understand Religion? Part 3: The Human Mind as a Host for Contagious Ideas

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Missed Part 1 or Part 2? I like to think that I am the master of my thoughts—that I generate and control them and that they serve my own purposes. But that is only one way to look at things. It … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Can Bacteria Help Us Understand Religion? Part 2: Why We Pass on False Ideas

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Missed Part 1?  Click here. When my brother David was three, he learned how to pee standing up. He was so excited, that the next time he saw sister Kathy, age twenty, heading for the bathroom, he ran after her … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Can Bacteria Help Us Understand Religion? Part 1: The Brain-Changing Power of Religious Belief

This gallery contains 1 photo.

To progress toward a better future, humanity desperately needs a better understanding of religion. Maybe microbes can help. Religion is one of the most powerful forces in human society. Before the rise of America’s Christian Right and before Islamists turned … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Christian Belief through the Lens of Cognitive Science, Part 5

How Viral Ideas Hook Us Did you know that Temple Baptist Church was built on land that sold for 57 cents, the amount saved by a little girl that had been turned away from their Sunday school?   Did you hear … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment