(Q)
07-06-08, 01:12 PM
A Memeplex are a set of memes that are compatible amongst other members of religious sects. Here's a list:
1. You will survive your own death.
2. If you die a martyr, you will go to an especially wonderful part of paradise where you will enjoy seventy-two virgins (spare a thought for the unfortunate virgins).
3. Heretics, blasphemers and apostates should be killed ( or otherwise punished, for example by ostracism from their families).
4. Belief in god is a supreme virtue. If you find your belief wavering, work hard at restoring it, and beg god to help your unbelief.
5. Faith (belief without evidence) is a virtue. The more your beliefs defy the evidence, the more virtuous you are. Virtuoso believers who manage to believe something really weird, unsupported and insupportable, in the teeth of evidence and reason, are especially highly rewarded.
6. Everybody, even those who do not hold religious beliefs, must respect them with a higher level of automatic and unquestioned respect than that accorded to other kinds of beliefs.
7. There are some weird things (such as Trinity, transubstantiation, incarnation) that we are not meant to understand. Don't even try to understand these, for the attempt might destroy it. Learn how to gain fulfillment in calling it a mystery. Remember Martin Luther's condemnation of reason:
"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God. Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason. Reason should be destroyed in all Christians".
8. Beautiful music, art and scriptures are themselves self-replicating tokens of religious ideas.
1. You will survive your own death.
2. If you die a martyr, you will go to an especially wonderful part of paradise where you will enjoy seventy-two virgins (spare a thought for the unfortunate virgins).
3. Heretics, blasphemers and apostates should be killed ( or otherwise punished, for example by ostracism from their families).
4. Belief in god is a supreme virtue. If you find your belief wavering, work hard at restoring it, and beg god to help your unbelief.
5. Faith (belief without evidence) is a virtue. The more your beliefs defy the evidence, the more virtuous you are. Virtuoso believers who manage to believe something really weird, unsupported and insupportable, in the teeth of evidence and reason, are especially highly rewarded.
6. Everybody, even those who do not hold religious beliefs, must respect them with a higher level of automatic and unquestioned respect than that accorded to other kinds of beliefs.
7. There are some weird things (such as Trinity, transubstantiation, incarnation) that we are not meant to understand. Don't even try to understand these, for the attempt might destroy it. Learn how to gain fulfillment in calling it a mystery. Remember Martin Luther's condemnation of reason:
"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God. Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason. Reason should be destroyed in all Christians".
8. Beautiful music, art and scriptures are themselves self-replicating tokens of religious ideas.