Is religion a virus?

[MarcusA]

Christ, it's a pandemic.

[The Valkyrie]

Soon...

[MarcusA]

Soon...

There is no soon. There is no cure.

[The Valkyrie]

Soon...

There is no soon. There is no cure.

There will soon be a cure.

[The Valkyrie]

There is no soon. There is no cure.

There will soon be a cure.

Told ya!

[Gwaithmir]

“The human race has suffered for centuries and is still suffering from the mental disorder known as religion, and atheism is the only physician that will be able to effect a permanent cure.” (Joseph Lewis) 

[FrustratedFool]

Dawkins popularised the notion of religion being a meme or mind virus, and the metaphor has some merit.

People are generally easy to manipulate, and many have inbuilt psychological predispositions that make them susceptible to religion and magical thinking in particular.

[Anomalocaris]

real viruses often have the wherewithal to jump species.   I am afraid religion is so pathetic it is incapable of jumping species but will live and die with only that the most gullible of all species.

[FrustratedFool]

real viruses often has the wherewithal to jump species. I am afraid religion is so pathetic it is incapable of jumping species but will live and die with only that the most gullible of all species.

I wonder. I suspect some other hominids had rudimentary religious impulses (esp Neanderthals). I have no idea about the inner life of dolphins, chimps, pigs, crows and octopi etc. But more so I wonder about ETs and AIs ...

Imagine a religious AI? Could be interesting.

[Anomalocaris]

real viruses often has the wherewithal to jump species.   I am afraid religion is so pathetic it is incapable of jumping species but will live and die with only that the most gullible of all species.

I wonder.  I suspect some other hominids had rudimentary religious impulses (esp Neanderthals).  I have no idea about the inner life of dolphins, chimps, pigs, crows and octopi etc.  But more so I wonder about ETs and AIs ...

Imagine a religious AI?  Could be interesting.

Religion requires a very particular set of cognitive defects such as:

1.   deriving more comfort from having any explanation than from having persistently verifiable and predictive explanations, or a parallel in having more delight in seemingly being able to cheat from a cheat sheet of dubious origin rather than accepting only answers which have been proven to be right or adequately predictive under the circumstances. 

2.   Having a fear of one’s own nonexistence greater than any satisfaction in having done the right thing for one’s community, species, and progeny 

It is not clear whether such cognitive defects are common to all intelligences, all biological intelligence, only intelligences which shared a great part of the particular evolution history with us, or only intelligence which were influenced by how civilization evolved under the particular circumstances in which our societies evolved.