A New Meme Has Latched onto Susan Blackmore

[chuff]

I just stumbled upon a surprisingly interesting article from Sue Blackmore regarding her change of mind (if that exists?) over the "maladaptive mind virus" hypothesis of religion:

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/sep/16/why-no-longer-believe-religion-virus-mind

So it seems I was wrong and the idea of religions as "viruses of the mind" may have had its day. Religions still provide a superb example of memeplexes at work, with different religions using their horrible threats, promises and tricks to out-compete other religions, and popular versions of religions outperforming the more subtle teachings of the mystical traditions. But unless we twist the concept of a "virus" to include something helpful and adaptive to its host as well as something harmful, it simply does not apply. Bacteria can be helpful as well as harmful; they can be symbiotic as well as parasitic, but somehow the phrase "bacterium of the mind" or "symbiont of the mind" doesn't have quite the same ring.

There's some interesting data that she cites throughout the piece so it's definitely worth a read. Also, I found a good blog entry here from the man who gave the presentation she found so convincing:

www.scilogs.eu/en/blog/biology-of-religion/2010-09-17/the-acceptance-of-evolutionary-sciences-how-susan-blackmore-impressed-me#

[James Hannam]

Thanks Chuff. I'd missed this and it is quite a conversion.

I admit I never found Blackmore worth taking seriously, and to be honest, I still don't. But treating religion as an adaptation is plainly more sensible than inventing a weird theory to explain where it came from. David Sloan Wilson and others have trodden on this path.

But if you are ideologically convinced that religion is evil you have a mighty difficult job explaining where it came from and why it appears to be a human universal in some guise or other.

Best wishes

James

[chuff]

Yeah, I must say that I have also had trouble taking her writings seriously as they often read more like bad sci-fi than actual science.

Still, it seems pretty rare to watch a person suddenly change their mind when they've become as invested in a certain narrative like Blackmore had with the mind-virus hypothesis. Even when there is plenty of good evidence to do so, swallowing your pride and admitting you were wrong doesn't come easy no matter what part of the spectrum you are on. So when I see someone who does, I have to give credit where credit is due.

[ignorantianescia]

I agree it is rather worthy of some credit to change views so abruptly. I did get the impression she threw her lot in with the memetic mind virus view, so getting rid of the viral part (even while quite obviously still retaining the memetic part) does seem a rather drastic U-turn compared to this (which I cannot take seriously either).

[chuff]

Oct 3, 2010 17:37:43 GMT ignorantianescia said:

I agree it is rather worthy of some credit to change views so abruptly. I did get the impression she threw her lot in with the memetic mind virus view, so getting rid of the viral part (even while quite obviously still retaining the memetic part) does seem a rather drastic U-turn compared to this (which I cannot take seriously either).

I see you like the website I posted. Of course I suppose it is possible that you stumbled upon that earlier on your own.

I have to say that Susan Blackmore comes across as a lot more merry and cheerful in those videos than I had imagined. I always had the impression that she was a bit of a grouch when I was reading her depressing rants on Comment Is Free.

[ignorantianescia]

I got at the site by your link. Thanks for providing it! The videos make a great watch.

I must admit I probably never read more than two or three articles by Blackmore before this one. Memetics never intrigued me after all (woe me). From the BBC documentary Did Darwin Kill God, she came more across as a bigot than as a depressed codger to me.

[ignorantianescia]

Blackmore about LSD:

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/mar/22/lsd-acid-trip-self-knowledge

I'm not convinced that an acid trip is the best guide to self-knowledge according to epistemology, though.

[himself]

Everything necessary to say about "memes" has been said by Mary Midgley.