Moment of insight?

[tree_and_leaf]

*is hit by intellectual oncoming train*

You can view the Christian concept of sanctity as a meme or memeplex (in the Dawkins sense, not the internet); not just the evolution of the complex, but the functions which holiness and the saints perform in affecting the beliefs and behaviour of believers (saints are at least partly there to create more saints, to put it crudely). What's more, I think it can even be made to work in a theologically satisfying way which doesn't sacrifice the importance of grace, because at times grace can work like the concepts with in a meme/ memeplex.

Why the devil didn't I think of that before? Especially as it's rather late to replan the thesis on that basis now... (and why am I struck by this while trying to throw something together for supervisor, who will probably think I'm thinking too theologically again?)

Of course, I may be fundamentally misunderstanding Dawkins' idea, but I must chase this up (and start with Drout's book on memes and tradition, since I'm not a biologist.) But I think there may be something to go at there.

Comments

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Does it help to think in terms of memes, though? Quite aside from the fact that I'm less than convinced by the ideas/genes analogy, a great deal of Christian religious practice is explicitly about creating and spreading belief, so I don't think you gain anything by adding the notion of "memes" to the mix.

Personally I think the fact that Dawkins' much-vaunted "meme" has ended up meaning "A pointless quiz on the internet" just goes to show that the universe does, in fact, have a sense of humour...

[wuglet.livejournal.com]

I can highly recommend The Selfish Meme (http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521606276) by Kate Distin, if you don't know it already.

Being the unbelieving/unconvinced/atheist/very much annoyed with RC church/strongly humanistic and neurobiological oriented/ falling somewhere between these categories -someone that I am, I've recently thought that religions and faith are one aspect of cultural and social evolution, necessary to form basic societies and to survive in them - and nothing more.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the first one to think this, so quite possibly there are many books out there on that topic. ;)

But I do find your approach highly interesting, and I'd like to hear more about it if (when) you decide to work with it! :)

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

It's reading posts like this that made me wish I were a literary scholar...