| Revision as of 17:26, 3 December 2006 editSnalwibma (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers8,829 edits on reflection, article is better without this incomprehensible Dawkins-bashing.← Previous edit | Revision as of 23:11, 3 December 2006 edit undoNBeale (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers5,925 edits Sorry - the reference got tangled in with the text. I have now straightened this out as requested. If others expand the article further by notable positive citations of this trope, it would be greatNext edit → | ||
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| The essay is included in the book '']'', and originated the term "]." | The essay is included in the book '']'', and originated the term "]." | ||
| The claims that "God" and "Faith" are viruses of the mind was analysed at length within a year of their original publication in ]'s 1992-3 ] lectures, written in collaboration with the Psychiatrist Quinton Deeley<ref> published as ''Is God a Virus?'' (SPCK, 1995, 274pp) He is severely critical of the claims, and of the quality of Dawkins argument, suggesting eg that "Logic never interferes with Dawkins's arguments where God is concerned" (p73). The other quotes come from p73 as well.</ref>. Dawkins describes religious belief as "parasites", "gangs", "viruses" or "component parts of a single virus"<ref> Dawkins describes religious beliefs as "mind-parasites" "gangs...which may be sufficiently stable to deserve a collective name such as Roman Catholicism.. or ... component parts to a single virus" ''Viruses of the Mind''</ref> and Bowker suggests that this "account of religious motivation...is...far removed from evidence and data." and that, even if the God-meme approach were valid, "it does not give rise to one set of consequences... Out of the many behaviours it produces, why are we required to isolate only those that might be regarded as diseased? And who ... decides, and on what grounds, what is diseased? ... there is nothing here as objective as the observation of chicken-pox... the observer...is highly relative". | |||
| ] in ''Dawkins's God:Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life'' is also severely critical of Dawkins analysis. In addition to suggesting that the notion of a God Meme is simplisitic<ref> McGrath op cit. p 119-138. The chapter is called ''Cultural Darwinism? The Curious "Science" of Mimetics''. He addresses specifically "Dawkin's ... idea that God is a parasitic 'virus of the mind'" (p212)</ref>, McGrath cites a metareview of 100 studies and argues that "If religion is reported as having a positive effect on human well-being by 79% of recent studies in the field, how can it conceivably be regarded as analagous to a virus?"<ref> ''op. cit.'' p.136 citing Koenig and Cohen ''The Link between Religion and Health'' OUP 2002</ref> | |||
| ==External links== | ==External links== | ||
Revision as of 23:11, 3 December 2006
"Viruses of the Mind" (1991/2?) is a controversial essay by Richard Dawkins using memetics, epidemiology, and an analogy with biological and computer viruses to analyse the propagation of religious beliefs. In the essay, Dawkins defines the "symptoms" of being infected by the "virus of religion", providing examples for most of them, and tries to define a connection between the elements of religion and its survival value (invoking Zahavi's handicap principle of sexual selection, applied to believers of a religion).
The second part of Dawkins' television programme The Root of All Evil? explored similar ideas and took a similar name, The Virus of Faith.
The essay is included in the book A Devil's Chaplain, and originated the term "faith-sufferer."
The claims that "God" and "Faith" are viruses of the mind was analysed at length within a year of their original publication in John Bowker's 1992-3 Gresham College lectures, written in collaboration with the Psychiatrist Quinton Deeley. Dawkins describes religious belief as "parasites", "gangs", "viruses" or "component parts of a single virus" and Bowker suggests that this "account of religious motivation...is...far removed from evidence and data." and that, even if the God-meme approach were valid, "it does not give rise to one set of consequences... Out of the many behaviours it produces, why are we required to isolate only those that might be regarded as diseased? And who ... decides, and on what grounds, what is diseased? ... there is nothing here as objective as the observation of chicken-pox... the observer...is highly relative".
Alister McGrath in Dawkins's God:Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life is also severely critical of Dawkins analysis. In addition to suggesting that the notion of a God Meme is simplisitic, McGrath cites a metareview of 100 studies and argues that "If religion is reported as having a positive effect on human well-being by 79% of recent studies in the field, how can it conceivably be regarded as analagous to a virus?"
External links
- The essay
- Different Types of Memes: Recipemes, Selectemes and Explanemes in the Journal of Mimetics by John Z. Langrish
references
- There has been some doubt about the date of this essay. However it is dated in the source 1991. It was cited in John Bowker's Is God a Virus as British Humanist Association (1992). It cannot be as late as 1993
- published as Is God a Virus? (SPCK, 1995, 274pp) He is severely critical of the claims, and of the quality of Dawkins argument, suggesting eg that "Logic never interferes with Dawkins's arguments where God is concerned" (p73). The other quotes come from p73 as well.
- Dawkins describes religious beliefs as "mind-parasites" "gangs...which may be sufficiently stable to deserve a collective name such as Roman Catholicism.. or ... component parts to a single virus" Viruses of the Mind
- McGrath op cit. p 119-138. The chapter is called Cultural Darwinism? The Curious "Science" of Mimetics. He addresses specifically "Dawkin's ... idea that God is a parasitic 'virus of the mind'" (p212)
- op. cit. p.136 citing Koenig and Cohen The Link between Religion and Health OUP 2002
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