...it must have evolved - meaning it must grant some survival advantage.
I assume you mean it must grant some survival advantage *to its host*. I'm not sure that follows.
Successful (organisms? memes?) that depend on a host for survival and/or replication often provide some benefit to that host, but there are some that don't, or that harm or kill their hosts. So long as they survive/replicate, what happens to their host is immaterial.
If the analogy holds, most successful religions would benefit their hosts (i.e. adherents, believers etc.) but some would be neutral and others would harm or even kill them.
If I'm understanding this right, the benefit/detriment might even be situational. A religion (or any meme for that matter) might be beneficial in most instances but turn, um, virulent under just the right (wrong?) conditions.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-02-22 04:04 am (UTC)I assume you mean it must grant some survival advantage *to its host*. I'm not sure that follows.
Successful (organisms? memes?) that depend on a host for survival and/or replication often provide some benefit to that host, but there are some that don't, or that harm or kill their hosts. So long as they survive/replicate, what happens to their host is immaterial.
If the analogy holds, most successful religions would benefit their hosts (i.e. adherents, believers etc.) but some would be neutral and others would harm or even kill them.
If I'm understanding this right, the benefit/detriment might even be situational. A religion (or any meme for that matter) might be beneficial in most instances but turn, um, virulent under just the right (wrong?) conditions.