[buff-a]

Thanks. I put it to you, however, that the activities you have listed:

  a) you do because your organization told you to do them.

  b) are effective at maintaining your membership of the organization.

That is, these activities, rituals, etc, exist because they make your religion more successful. Your religion is a meme. All its actions are memes. Even the memes that cause you to go out and learn other memes.

Saatchi and Saatchi has nothing on Organized Religion at generating memes.

[gyardley]

Well, point b) is correct. I get a lot of benefit from my synagogue membership, so of course I stay a member. That's common sense.

Point a) is just insulting. I do them because I choose to do them. Same with everyone who's a member of any voluntary organization. We do have free will, you know.

I'm going to pass on discussing memetics, but if you're interested, Mary Midgely is the author to read.

[buff-a]

Clearly you have free will. You have chosen to give the meme influence. Still a meme. Still influence.

EDIT: And in fact, you may not have free will in this case. If you have free will, why is it that most Christian children have Christian parents? Why do most Muslim children have Muslim parents? Jewish children have Jewish parents?

[mentat]

And the meme you're executing that all religions are merely about influence, what makes it different from his meme?