TD03 – Absolute Truth or evolving fuzzy truths
There is no doubt that religion has dominated the thinking of the last millennium. Before that, religion played a central part in human culture since very early times.
There is also no doubt that, due to their religious memes, many people have been influenced in their behaviour. Some for human welfare and others for human sacrifice.
Ninian Smart, when Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies in the University of Lancaster wrote in The World’s Religions about the rich cultural diversity of human religious memes,
So long as humans are brought up in different paths, so they will see the world differently, and for each path some things will seem natural and right and others not. But the paths cross. We can benefit from that. Social justice, which Marxists struggle for; human freedom, which liberals emphasize; love of God and fellow humans, which Christianity preaches; brotherhood, which Islam promotes; calm and mysticism, which go with Buddhism; devotion and pluralism, which Hinduism points to; harmony with nature, which Taoism commends; the cultivation of interpersonal behaviour, which is a lesson from Confucianism; holism in life, which we find in Africa; finding meaning through suffering, which Judaism has had to emphasize; the importance of inner sincerity, which we find among the Sikhs: these and many other spiritual and moral values are not of course mutually incompatible.
Yes, many religious memes seem as though they should be quite compatible but the trouble has been that they are usually antagonistic to one another. If only the world’s religions had a history of tolerance. If only each different religion had demonstrated a respect for other religions. If only the most ferocious wars ever fought had not been religious wars. If only religions behaved well and were chivalrous to one another. If only the cognitive greed exemplified by claiming I-am-right-and-You-are wrong, sadly, a meme which is still so widespread and coveted by so many of those self-righteous souls. If only …
Deus vult! A thousand years ago the Christian memes fought their bloodthirsty crusade against the infidel memes. Today, the evidence is strong that the battle is far from over. But, there is hope.
As we launch humanity into the Third Millennium we find that we do have an alternative to religion – science. Both religion and science fulfil a basic human need which is to try to understand things. Religion uses inspiration and science uses observation. Religion uses faith and science uses experiment. Religion uses Absolute Truth and science uses evolving fuzzy truths. Religion uses authority and science uses questioning.
Dr Susan Blackmore of the Department of Psychology, University of the West of England, notes in The Meme Machine,
We cannot get away from religions, but using memetics we can understand how and why they have such power. All the great religions of the world began as small-scale cults, usually with a charismatic leader, and over the years a few of them spread to take in billions of people all over the planet. Imagine just how many cults there must have been in the history of the world. The question is why did these few survive to become the great faiths, while the vast majority simply died out with the death of their leader or the dispersal of their few adherents?… Dawkins was the first to give memetic answers, although his ideas on religion have been frequently criticised. He took Roman Catholicism as an example…millions of people all over the world profess themselves Catholics and pray to Jesus, his mother Mary, and God the Father. They spend vast amounts of their valuable time and money supporting and spreading the faith to others, and the Catholic Church is among the richest institutions in the world. Dawkins explains how religious memes, even if they are not true, can be successful.
I have also written at length about this in Software For Your Brain and will do so only briefly here. Because of the righteousness involved it’s a tricky topic to write about and it’s so easy to be accused of showing religious intolerance and other knee-jerk reactions. Yet it is precisely because of the historical intolerance promoted by many religious authorities that one needs to address the issue.
The distinguished biologist, Sir Peter Medawar once wrote: The price in blood and tears that mankind generally has had to pay for the comfort and spiritual refreshment that religion has brought a few has been too great to justify entrusting our moral accountancy to religious belief.
Many of our current business memes are derived from religious memes. For example, the absolutes of ‘right vs wrong’, ‘good vs bad’, ‘men vs women’, ‘salesman vs customer’ and ‘managers vs employees’ are all religion-based memes.
Many of these conflicts have a big impact on business growth. While I intend no offence whatever to sincerely held religious beliefs, I feel that I cannot avoid discussing religion in a serious, open-minded discussion of memes.
While the reader is perfectly free to disagree, I do defend the claim that the evolving fuzzy truths of science are safer and more human-friendly than the Absolute Truth of religion. It is my view that the awesome astonishment that science offers us from its accelerating stream of discoveries is a peak experience which dwarfs the cryptic ‘revelations’ of the occult and supernatural.
The scientific method is a bona fide attempt to try to differentiate the truer memes from false memes. The paradox is that it is an ongoing process. You never get there. There is no Absolute Truth in science, only truths that are more likely than other truths. Science is based on observation and measurement–evidence. Since there is always more and more evidence, scientific truths are constantly challenged and updated.
Scientific knowledge is not secret or arcane but open to investigation and detailed analysis by anyone. By contrast, religious memes rarely rely on testing and evidence but are very often acts of faith that are spread with missionary zeal around the world. These memes may be absurdly false like Genesis, counterfeit like the Donation of Constantine or deadly like Fatwahs and Inquisitions but they are disguised as truth and virtue.
In my career, I have found that there is more religion than science in business and I am simply taking the position that I think there should be more science than religion in business. That’s all!
TD03 Feedback Question:
What positive effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
What negative effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
January 12th, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Religious docrtine includes many wise sensible precious thoghts as…
Love is patient, love is kind,
Love does not insist on its own way.
Love bears all things, believes all things,
Hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
…
The negative (not negative — terrible!) effects are intolerance to ideas of others, holding on to bad ideas because of tradition, social judgement, sense of guilt.
January 6th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
Positive effects include the proverbs as expreessions on wisdom and common sense, prevention is better than cure was an upfront flag of caution. A stitch in time saves nine is anonther.
The negative effects is avoiding argument and confrontation
January 6th, 2012 at 6:23 am
Positive religious memes that I have grown up with in Australia include tolerance, community, giving and forgiveness.
Negative religious memes include strict rules, social judgement, forced rituals and holding on to old concepts (i.e. inability to change).
January 4th, 2012 at 11:37 pm
Positive :importance of community, unity, respect
Negative: false hope
December 5th, 2011 at 11:10 pm
Positive religious memes are; exercises in self discipline (lent, learning to sit still for an hour or so at church when I was very young), community involvement, compassion for others, non-commercialization of basic human needs – these needs for fresh water, and shelter are not revenue streams to be exploited.
Negative religious memes; being satisfied with nonsense answers to serious questions, intolerance to ideas of others, holding on to bad ideas because of tradition.
December 1st, 2011 at 8:51 am
I believe in God and an afterlife and that causes me to act, hopefully more often than not, in ways that show regard for others and their beliefs and opinions and to live without hurting others, while trying to do things which I perceive as positive.
Religious memes have often made me feel guilty about some of my actions. I believe that everyone is entitled to their own belief, as long as the actions which they carry out do not hurt others.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Being a closely knitted family and having been surrounded by religion my entire life, my parent’s gave me the choice of choosing my own and/or forming my own opinion about religion.
I am very fortunate and cursed at the same time to have been born into a society that favours a certain religous stance in reference to my people.
These produced memes, (as all do) and my family and I have been referencing these memes for almost a generation.
This religion catgorises everything and prioritises such general things, from most important which is God, King, Dead, Land, Living and finally yourself being the least important. The positive? a unique religion to our region, the negative? everyone seems to know more about it than you and are not afraid to tell you about it not to mention, the big cloud of impending doom that is…..”Am I not important, at least more so than the dead?”.
November 1st, 2011 at 11:27 am
Religious memes have had the positive effects of charity, unity, and acts of devotion in my life.
Religious memes have had the negative effects of prejudice, ignorance, and gross intolerance in my life.
October 31st, 2011 at 11:32 pm
1. Hope
2. Belief in things that are not real
October 21st, 2011 at 12:10 pm
in my early years religious memes limited the amount of trouble i could have got into through the fear of god, so possibly a positive. at the same time it also made me feel guilty and affected my self asteem, therefore must be a negative. eventually through witnessing the hypocracy and violence associated with so called religions, led me to search for meaning and truth in life which is part of why am in sot in the first place. any positive memes are good memes me thinks . again thanks michael
October 13th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Positive: Devotion, worship and service.
Negative: Intolerance and hypocrisy.
September 29th, 2011 at 1:44 am
the importance of others
Unquestioning
September 29th, 2011 at 1:19 am
Positive effects from religious memes ????? None
Negative effects from religious memes? Plenty.
September 28th, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Fortunatley I am one of those very few people who did not grow up in a religious based household, did not go to church or Sunday school or a religious based education simply because my father was a catholic my mother was a protestant and no one would marry them, this was in the late 60′s, 70′s, that was their religious meme that they did not pass onto us. So I have no fundamentalist religious instinct at all or meme, and I adore that fact and thank my parents all the time for it. Forty years on people my age still suffer from religious guilt and I just don’t get it. Oh I am still a very nice person despite all that
September 5th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Positive Effects
I always enjoyed the parables that show us better ways to behave, treat ourselves and other people. Such stories make it easier to remember key traits that we can adopt to make us better as people.
Negative Effects
Fortunately I have not directly experienced many negative effects.
Perhaps it is because I do not feel a need to live by one absolute truth that I can keep an open mind and take on the best bits from each religion.
I do however get very annoyed by religious intolerance and people that have closed minds. Such people are the biggest menace to our society.
August 30th, 2011 at 12:22 am
Positively religious memes have given me help and support when isolated and a strong sense of ethics.
Negatively I have no trust in any absolute belief and sometimes feel that every thing is hopeless . It is all compounded by leaving a religion that was deeply ingrained in me and feeling slightly as though I am a traitor and should therefore expect to be punished.
August 21st, 2011 at 6:42 pm
I would answer these questions with an example of dividing a pie. There is the ‘truth’, which exists aside from our believes and/or scientific evidences found to date. The sum of both comprises the ‘truth’ known to us. Cut off any piece, and the system is incomplete. Religious memes are our salvation in times of hardship, yet they also obscure the clearness of ‘here’ and ‘now’. These are positive and negative effects.
August 9th, 2011 at 6:08 pm
In a certain time in my life it gave me a point of reference.
But in becoming more open to and aware of different models of the world it appeared to me how intolerant I was …
And that was the point of change in my life. Till today and the rest of my life – I am not stopping asking better questions – and this is a wonderful way of life – for me.
August 7th, 2011 at 5:30 am
a code to live by
some scientists become more religious through their work
and we are no where near a universal scientific theory of the reality of our experience of existence
August 7th, 2011 at 4:48 am
Positive Effect
Religious memes has made courage and making me not become hopeless as a means of making things easy in my life time.
NEGATIVE
Religious memes has made not honest in life and living me the spirit of hatred.
August 6th, 2011 at 10:07 pm
What positive effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
In my case I found great comfort and spiritual guidance and at the church I made a few friends. In my opinion it was a very rewarding experience.
What negative effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
Telling children if they don’t go to church then they would go to hell .A very frightening thing for a young child. To be told about this years later and then not knowing what memes could be conveyed to the church’s authorities to stop this rotten practice.
August 6th, 2011 at 7:16 pm
What positive effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
Paradoxically, maybe it was the religion that taught me to doubt everything. I am saying it from a completely atheistic point of view – why these people believe so firmly in what they believe in. Why, why, why. Can’t they see the contradictions?
What negative effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
There are good principles in almost every religion but unfortunately they are mixed with lies and half truths for the purposes of manipulating the people.
August 4th, 2011 at 10:56 am
Ritual in a persons life is vital for emotional balance. We have ritual for Birth and Death, Getting married. Some also celebrate divorce. Winning personal achievments.Celebrating peak performance and Experience. When we experience peak experience we experience the all surrounding energy that some people call God.
Absolute authority of religion pushed me to go to seek alternative religion. Call it comparitive religion. I lean more toward Taoism today. Authoritive religion scared me.
June 20th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Positive: Established a moral/value system, pushed me towards question that went beyond materialism.
Negative: Limitations on freedom/liberalism, create barriers for entering the world views of others
June 7th, 2011 at 1:25 am
Positive:
1- Hope
2- Faith
3- Love
Negative:
1- Good(we are) vs Evil(they are)
2- Fanaticism
May 11th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
1. The positive – treat people fairly, pay for their efforts before the sweat
dries off, never cheat, appreciate people and their efforts and never
humiliate mankind, uphold their dignity. The religion never went
against science. On the contrary it has exhorted people to look
around and discover the secrets lying buried around us and to use
them for the benefit of Mankind.
2. Negative – well the religion never directed me to act negatively.
Unfortunately, the real culprits are the people who define and give
meaning to the religion in the way that suits their end.
March 30th, 2011 at 10:18 pm
Whether it had affected me positively or negatively or both ways, it all depends on what i call it or understand it to be. I choose to learn from every prevailing suituation/circumstance and do not regret the outcome.. Knowledge of anykind could be good and also bad at same time. e.g Elbert Enstien and his MC2. It all boils down to use and application. To me, life is all about Learning everything, Unlearning (if necessary) & Relearning new ones. Negatives balances positives so both to me are normal. Without one, the other wuldnt be complete. I do what i do after i might had drawn/taken a personal decision to do them. So teach me whatever you can and i will learn whateva i could but the application is what matters. Anybody, or institution can only advice me but can;t force me to accept and apply it. Unless in an academic/ controlled environment.
March 28th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
What positive effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
Faith, Discipline,
What negative effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
Us-vs-Them, Guilt,
January 10th, 2011 at 5:25 am
As I have explored various religious memes, taking from each that which I find helpful and useful it is difficult to answer the question regarding negative effect, positive effects would be the capacity for calmness, peace and recognising the connections between us all.
December 25th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
What positive effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
Plenty, e.g. “Love Thy Neighbour as Thy Self”
What negative effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
Everything in the SOGI model (Society, Organisation, Group, Individual) is structured around being right or wrong, true or false, etc; although paradoxically the whole platform of right or wrong is based on false bases.
December 14th, 2010 at 3:23 am
What positive effect have religious memes had on YOUR life? I’ve learnt to care about people, and forgiveness.
What negative effect have religious memes had on YOUR life? It got me to waste much time questioning if my actions are good or bad and questioning others actions when I should have cared.
November 22nd, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Positive effect:
The ability to respect other people as they are without judgement.
Negative effect:
The unending fights of supremacy between Islam and Christianity which have resulted in untold human suffering.
October 11th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Positive and Negative,an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth.
September 12th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
I am not sure if there has been a positive effect of religious memes in my life. I guess if it has somehow given me a moral compass as to do no harm to my fellow human beings, then it has been positive. However, I am not sure I can credit that to religion or my secular teaching from my parents, and teachers. As for the negative effect religious memes might have been, are the constraints of guilt for not beliveing in the Christian doctrines I have been bombarded with while growing up in a western society (USA). The religious memes I have encountered seem more like insanity rather than positive.
September 12th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Positive: a reminder to be charitable; some beautiful and inspiring music and art
Negative: guilt; intolerence of the rights of others
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:46 am
I believe it is positive that my religious memes and faith gives me hope and perseverance to make it through difficult times.
Religious memes have had a negative effect in my life by making me feel guilt about some of the decisions I have made in my life and guilt about some of my actions.
I have also witnessed how religious memes can cause people to be violent and nasty towards other in the name of religion and just because they are different.
August 20th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Positive: Sharing. Family unity. Charity; in all its definitions. Forgiveness.
Negative: Guilt. Distrust of Leaders. The Hereafter pie in the sky.
August 20th, 2010 at 1:40 am
the catholic memes i had implated growing up as a boy contiue to influence me..I sat alert to beliefs and tenedncies and judgments based on y early creligious conditioning, becasue they affect decsions and choices, they result in negative emotions and self-diminishing or self-limiting thouhts… On the positive side, they inspire and motivate me to be more loving and compassionate, more serving of life and others…
August 17th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Positive effects of religious memes in my life are faith, hope and love, a commitment to social justice and a respect for all.
Negative effects of religious memes in my life would be the negative lessons from fundamentalists from all types of religion
August 17th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Positive: Concepts I was exposed to in church, such as honesty, compassion, ‘do unto others’, became memes I live by. These are things I think are ‘right’, when you must live in a society.
Negative: I find it hard to understand how my sister could have married someone who had very strong attitudes towards things like colour (race). These memes produced from living in the south of the USA, where the KKK flourished. But I must say that over time, the religious memes my family was brought up with have influenced him and helped adjust or modify his memes.
August 17th, 2010 at 9:07 am
The positive effect that religious memes have had on my life are respect and appreciation for the natural beauty of our country.
The negative effect that religious memes have had on my life are the arrogance of people that believe that their religion is superior to any other.
August 16th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
My mother came from a very religious family and we all attended Sunday School and reared in a “Christian way.” “Do unto others…, be kind, help those that are less fortunate etc. do the “right thing.” Religion helps to regulate our conduct and behaviour in society by providing a set of morals and value-system for human existence. But then I ask if we need religion to give us morals? Like many things, religion is what we make of it. We can become a better more compassionate person or we can use religion as a self-justification for our own ego.
August 16th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
+ ve meme: love and respect for others, working to support those less fortunate in society.
- ve meme: in my early years feeling I needed to make value judgements on passtimes such as drinking and gambling, without an understanding of why – I now see the social issues that arise from these passtimes and advocate moderation.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:56 am
Positive memes: respect and empathy for others,faith and hope.
Negative memes: the concept that my beliefs are the right ones.
July 14th, 2010 at 10:18 am
Positive:
Morals imbedded in me that I still hold dear.
Negative:
1) The innability to discuss certain subjects with PTV infected individuals, which seem to exist in both camps.
2)Personal relationships and possible marriage partners deemed innapropriate through the eyes of family.
Very happily married now I hasten to add. “Are you listening dear?”
It seems human nature is the bad guy here. It is the firmware that boots us up in the morning. It created all the religions and reasons for war:
Hate
Money
Religion
oil
Life
Death
Power
Boredom
Hunger (Worship cows and don’t eat em!)
This course and things like it are software training to redirect the actions of our firmware. If you feel that your firmware is pure, have a good long look at your heart for you have missed something. At least admit that as a collective we are self destructive, greedy and antagonistic. How many countries won’t lie cheat or worse for a lucrative trade deal. all governments, our voted representatives have spies or at least informants of other cultures secrets. Large businesses, who we work for, employ less that upstanding practises to obtain options and information. Many things, including religion, use this weakness to give a reason for their brand of redemption. I guess they attempt to hand the power over followers to a higher power to try and stop human nature from derailing their intention, be it good or bad.
Learning to think better is great. What can we do to make our thinking human nature proof.
It ain’t religion that’s for sure.
Then what?
Guess I was feeling a little phylosophical today!
July 8th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
A positive effect that religious memes have had on MY life would be that they have help me to be more broad minded about living a good life i.e. provided a possible explanation for the creation of life now and after death.
A negative effect that religious memes have had on MY life would be the amount of violence that I have witnessed by individuals against other individuals, i.e. crusades, inquisitions, the Northern Ireland unrest in past years. Jutisifications like “in the name of god” or “Holy war”.
July 6th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Christianity was the basis of the house, with respect, fairness, integrity and treatment of others embedded in the way we went about our lives.
As you grew up and questioned more, the absolute truth aspect could not answer all.
July 2nd, 2010 at 8:21 am
Schooling in the wonderful setting of Canterbury Cathedral, exploring Glastonbury Abbey, the Tor, Wells Cathedral, Tintern Abbey, York Minster, Lindisfarne, the list is endless.
Enforced religion can be incredibly boring.
June 28th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Basis for beliefs and values.
Conflict with scientific data.
June 27th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Positive – to treat others and you want to be treated.
Negative – distrust of others based on perception rather than the application of the message above
June 25th, 2010 at 10:39 am
1. Common memes (that were passed onto me) with other people has resulted in me being part of a community that can be relied upon for support.
2. In my earlier years I had a more limited perspective of the world resulting from a biased education.
June 15th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
An ethical behavior.
A limited thinking.
May 27th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
+ Good will to people, community, the idea of the extended larger family group. Routine, accountability, and discipline to some degree. Humble-ness. A catalyst to make me really think…
- My wife believes in God, which is the cause of some friction although not serious. Extreme religions make me scared to speak my mind about the subject. Disappointment that there really isn’t a magical afterlife. Long boring rants (disguised as conversations) from believers.
Note that I have had very little to do with religion and the good that I take has been mostly as a keen observer.
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:53 pm
The basic things like do onto others as done onto you and do no harm.
Guilt etc. are the negative things.
April 28th, 2010 at 8:01 am
What positive effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
…..NONE
What negative effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
….the absolutes of ‘right vs wrong’, ‘good vs bad’, ‘men vs women’, ’salesman vs customer’ and ‘managers vs employees’ are all religion-based memes….this is a constant annoyance to me…..the concepts of “lording” over others….is never a positive.
April 23rd, 2010 at 9:21 am
I need to reflect on this at length. I think religion can be used positively as a means unite people and raise them from oppression but conversely it can be used negatively, as a mean to keep people suppress or “under the thumb”.
April 13th, 2010 at 7:49 am
Positive:
My upbringing which exposed me to formalised religion which raised questions and got me onto a path of eastern philosophy and the link between spirituality and science!!! Read a fantastic book Message of the Lord as a practical philosophy….. The author (a world reknowned physicist) chose NOT to put his name anywhere on the book, what an example of letting go of ones ego. If you can get hold of the book ( I’m happy to provide publisher details if you are interested) it its a must read… ignore the first bit if you are not into eastern religion and go straight through to the Science and God section
Negative:
Witnessed blind faith and while respecting everyones choice to believe what they want I have come to the long held belief by many that ‘religion’ is all about power and in many cases subjugating the vunerable
March 15th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Positive – the values that are preached are similar to those that I uphold.
Negative – the manner in which some religions attempt to deliver their message simply results in me shutting down to them rather than seeing if they have anything that I might like to take on board and use.
February 15th, 2010 at 5:56 am
Postive: Brought up in Scotland, Sunday school and church were a way of life. I don’t believe it did me any harm as I would not know what other people are talking about if I did not have some basic understanding. It up to the individual as to what they believe or think. I am not religious and tolerant of others, as long as they don’t try to force their opinions on me. It still feels nice singing carols at Christmas time.
Most importantly, comedy would struggle without religion!
Negative: Religious fanatics – live your own life and leave the rest of us alone
January 21st, 2010 at 4:03 pm
What positive effect have religious memes had on YOUR life? The role of the cathloic church in christenings, weedings and funerals.
What negative effect have religious memes had on YOUR life? Suspicion and trust issues.
January 19th, 2010 at 4:51 am
Positive can’t go past the holidays – Christmas and Easter – Gold.
Negative – Airport security – Lost my best waiters friend to anti-terrorist memes
January 11th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
My Mother was a deeply religious woman so I had a fair grounding through Sunday school in my youth, although I am not religious now.
My Mother was a great advocate for ‘christianity by example’ so spent most of her life helping others. Some of those religious memes are noe embedded moral values – do unto others as you would have them do unto you, practise random acts of kindness daily.
Negative effects of religious memes – I have a deep anger about inequality. Religion is the foundation of discrimination on the basis of gender religion (other than your own!), sexual preference etc
January 8th, 2010 at 6:52 am
Some of the most beautiful music written (at least to my ear) was inspired by the composers’ religious sentiments and the enjoyment that I derive from listening is an ongoing positive in my life.
I have occasionally caused offence by openly having different religious opinions from a colleague or fellow guest, which tends to be a negative experience at a party. Since I am not offended by other people’s beliefs, it took me a number of such occasions to realise that other people can feel threatened by dissent. It is an ongoing negative to me that I now must consider whether to cause that reaction or suppress my own opinions in such situations.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:05 am
A bit tricky this one. I was not raised in a religious household as a child and didn’t have much contact with any religious beliefs at all. Couple that with the fact that I was a teenager during the 60s when all beliefs were being questioned, I have never been a believer in absolutes.
January 7th, 2010 at 9:18 am
Positive – Although not always practiced by religious people the meme of caring for and respecting others.
Negative – The religious meme that many things are “black and white” due to the steadfast belief in absolutes. This leads to a lack of questioning and hence an inability to compromise which can lead to breaking the positive meme above.
December 26th, 2009 at 2:52 am
The positive effect that religious memes had on my life is in believe consequences of wrong doing. If we did something bad it will backfire us. Another meme is to have faith and trust in others.
The negative side is forgiveness while others may not think the same.
December 24th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Religious memes have provided me with an ethical basis on which to ground my behaviour and relationships.
I can see in religious groups a severe LACK of LIVING what they preach as the ESSENTIAL ways to work,live, behave and speak.
The lack of FAMILIAL WARMTH in the church I attend is endemic.
The negative effect is that I no longer really wish to associate myself with groups who do not WALK THEIR TALK.
I have the VALUES memes , and I live by them …….I just see huge contradictions in what is SAID , and what is DONE ,and i remain puzzled and disappointed as a result.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I guess the effects on my life have been from the contact with people who were strong believers themselves.
I was helped enormously through some tough times, and conversely have been hurt in some instances where I didn’t “fit the criteria”.
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Positive:
I took on ‘do unto others, as you would have them do unto you’ at a pretty early age, which seems to have worked out quite well. The concept of forgiving/being forgiven has been very handy also.
Negative:
I am sure we have all had encounters with the ‘fire and brimstone’ preachers, and others hell-bent on converting souls to thier own brand of religion. I find religious fervour quite scary.
November 18th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Religious memes have had no effect on my life, either positive, or negative.
November 16th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Positive: Comfort zone of belonging to a group that “seems” to be there for you in time of need.
Negative: Not questioning any beliefs. Even if it did not make sense
November 16th, 2009 at 9:27 am
A diverse range of religious memes amongst my friends and peers have always had me thinking and challenging alternatives. This is positive.
From time to time I have played along with religious services which do not form part of my beliefs. I’m sure I’m not the first but this insincerity is a little unpalletable.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:33 am
I do not really have a position on positives or negatives re religious memes – possibly because I tend to follow the scientific path.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I was brought up in the Catholic education system and am proud of the positive influence my peers have on society.
I struggle to understand how any religion can be used to think of others in a negative or hateful way. To justify with religion and think less of others (intolerance) is just arrogance.
November 5th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Religious memes have had neither positive or negative effects on me personally, but when I read or see the news of the world I tend to see negative impacts.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Positive effect: I think more around how my children were educated in the catholic system (at least at the primary level). It taught them to treat others with respect and to be a kind caring person.
Negative effect: fundamentalism where atrocites are performed in the name of religion.
October 27th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
If I’m thinking about religion I don’t usually mean spirituality.
Religion to me is more associated with some sort of authoritarian hierachy.
What positive effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
I’m struggling to think of anything that any religious meme has done for me as an individual, but there are things from a big picture point of view.
Perhaps the current organisation of our society is one. I mean the fact we are organised and not totally chaotic might have
something to do with various religions controlling many things in life both pre and post democracy.
They (religions) have at least tried to ensure that we as humans treat each other well (many religions do this).
Most religions help spread 2 important memes that keep our society working.
I’m not sure these were invented by religions, but they spread them.
These are:
1. always do what you promise to do
2. don’t interfere with other people or their possessions
What negative effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
Again I’m struggling to think of a religious meme that’s had a bad effect on me as a person.
One thing that bugs me though is the meme about God having created everything or having control over everything and
therefore only God has the right to change “natural” things (again, something stated as fact by religious heirachies
and accepted as the truth – a very powerful meme). This often results in religion-based arguements against scientists interfering with nature and with many people’s confusion about what is or is not “natural”.
If you’re reading this (does anybody?), have a look around where you’re sitting and identify something that fits your definition of “natural”. Why is that thing “natural”?
October 25th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Positive effect: Religious memes have made me to live in peace with my neighbors.
Negative effects: confusion- because of divergent views of sects about the bible.
October 25th, 2009 at 3:01 am
While the reader is perfectly free to disagree, I do defend the claim that the evolving fuzzy truths of science are safer and more human-friendly than the Absolute Truth of religion. It is my view that the awesome astonishment that science offers us from its accelerating stream of discoveries is a peak experience which dwarfs the cryptic ‘revelations’ of the occult and supernatural.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:02 am
+ve
The act of caring for fellow humans is one of the memes that appears to arise from religion, which is a positive attribute. Mother Theresa comes to mind as an extreme example of this.
-ve
The philosophy (shared concurrently by a number of different religions or parts of the same religion) that their’s is the ‘only way’ to think or believe leads to much of the intolerance alluded to above.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:01 am
Whether they have had a negative or positive impact is difficult to assess I have lived in both christian and muslim households and can see good in both regligions. However as a scientist religion to me is illogical but I can see why people need to believe or follow something.
POSITIVE ‘Turn the other cheek’ worked really well for me at school with bullies. Bullies thrive on fear in their victims and mob reponse – if the victim doesn’t express fear the bully becomes confused and loses the ‘ adoration’ of the mob. As you get older the bullies still exist though and have different tactics.
NEGATIVE ‘You shall have no other gods before me’. To me this is a big negative why if we believe in religion should we assume there is only one god and not question this. This commandment and variations on this has been twisted and used by many so called leaders as the basis for many of the worlds conflicts.
October 21st, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Thou shalt not kill is fairly good advice.
I just cannot relate to the Catholic mantra about birth control and the resultant affect of STDs in poorer communities. taht annoys me.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:46 am
+ve: Religious beliefs can support your relations with your fellow man.
-ve: Religious beliefs can ruin your relationships with your fellow man.
P.S. Thank god I’m an atheist.
October 19th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Sure, I’m a Roman-Catholic on paper but consider myself an agnostic.
So, I’d prefer to label as “common sense” what others might see as positive religious memes: being considerate, empathetic, just (fair).
“If only the world’s religions had a history of tolerance.” This sentence from above sums it up nicely. “God” loves you but only if you follow Religion XYZ. Beautiful.
October 18th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Do unto others as you would have them do to you is a great positive religious meme.
On the negative side, religious memes also teach fear, retribution and an eye for an eye.
October 17th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
+ taught me to be show more empathy to my fellow man and work in my community to help those less fortunate.
- shown me the hate that can be engendered through fundamenalism.
Thankfully for me the + has outweighed the -.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Positive
Forgiveness, empathy with the poor/marginalised, honesty, concern for others.
Negative
Intolerance that I see in some that hold to fundamentalist views. Having said that I know that these unwaivering, extreme views are held by only a very small percentage in most religions. Likewise a small percentage of scientists (or any other group!) are also fairly intolerant of the views and ideas of others.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:55 am
Although I grew up in a Christian household and had most negative experiences,the horror stories of hell and end of the world.The positive experience is with buddhism and meditation,in Zen the empathsis is on the present and seeing beyond the religon.A useful tool for removing the blinders of our attention spans.The religious memes had their usefulness when society needed that mortar to hold together civilization.At this point,the meme has outlived its function and, true to survival,restrict cultures from evolving beyond rudimentary territorial needs.
October 13th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
I totally agree with SR,
October 13th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Positive Christian meme (that also has corollaries in other belief systems) ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. i.e. be considerate
Negative religious (cultural/historical originals not with standing) memes including patriarchal, authoritarian and often misogynistic messages have had a negative effect.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Religious memes have had a positive effect on my life by teaching and emphasizing the importance of individual morality.
Religious memes have had a negative effect on my life by providing an escape from personal responsibility, and by insisting I classify things as either ‘good’ or ‘evil’; I subsequently have found myself using religious self-forgiveness techniques to mentally avoid responsibility for things I have carried out personally that would be classified as evil.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
1. Do not recall any
2. I do not let any memes that lack constructive features to enter my subconscious.
October 9th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
+ve: that a lot of good things / programmes are organised or run by religious groups
-ve: I find the attitude that only people who are religious can do good things quite off putting
October 9th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
I think it was Mark Twain who said, “It’s not what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, so much as, what you Do know, that just ain’t so.”
I went to a Christian School, until my last few years of schooling so I have had exposure, if you like, to the Memes of Religion. But in addition I have kept my mind open and studied many things and seen Truths change. An example many will be familiar with is the Total number of Elements existing in our school-days world. In 2009 that number is far greater. Another example is the Law of Contract, back a bit, but in print when I read it. A contract may be Avoided by virtue of Impossibility, e.g, Flying to the moon. That was a belief of the times but became Fuzzy and then, well you know..
Long ago things like this have made me safe from Memes for a long time, and for all time.
The positive and negative of Memes can be mixed and reversed in their effect. For example the people who would do good can become, Do Gooders, and thereby as we all sadly know,do more harm than good.
October 9th, 2009 at 7:40 am
Positive: Values like love, honesty, caring for one another are a very important part of my life.
Negative: The fact that you are not allowed to question the HIGHER TRUTH that religion uses to control your behaviour.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:17 am
Religious memes have not affected me positively or negatively.
October 8th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
+ : The only religious meme I can see as positive is meditation.
- : What negative effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
Religious memes survive only one way : If you are not with them, you are against.
Belief is a choice. People should not try to prove of rationalize beliefs. This leads to exclusion, intolerance and atrocities.
October 8th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
An appreciation of forgiveness understanding and compassion
Guilt ..righteousness..and quite a lot of embarrassment
October 8th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Positive Effect – Faith and momentum during tough times.
Negative Effect – Being misunderstood or labeled to the religion which I belong.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Positive effect – made me ask more questions.
Negative effect – nobody had or was willing to answer the questions objectively, which just led to more questions.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Positive = AWAKEN me to the Absolute Truth that Religion, by its very Institution has been memed to CONTROL Humans for Global Power and Domination.
Negative = As a Result of the Above, I NO longer accept Religion as Emanating from God … moreso, Invented and Applied From Man himself with Very Specific Memes and a Specific Inherent Agenda … x100 … + …
In Love, Light, Brilliance, Peace and Awakening … to Us All …
Multiple Blessings …
October 8th, 2009 at 10:47 am
The farmer’s creed, doubtless a product of some dour Protestants:
“Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and exercise.: or was it criticise?
Negative effects? Probably incalculable.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:26 am
The positive side might be very little and behind that too lies some dangers. So the whole thing is that their is no positive side of any religious memes.
For the negative side many things even human death itself. Many struggles to really free my mind.
Erik From Ghana
October 8th, 2009 at 5:25 am
positive effect the 10 commandments i use as guide to remind me of the options available in life, to follow or question.
negative effects religouse fanatics blindly following their religous memes.takeing lives of non believers,then their own.leaveing survivors,with pain suffering to continue blindly in their im right your wrong meme.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
I do believe in science. I do not follow any religion and therefore it does not have any positive or negative influence in my life.
October 7th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Mine is a religion of human values and not one of the popular so called religions.
Positive effect:
Meditation. Increased concentration. Ahinsa – non violence in a wider sense, which includes not torturing someone by words / thoughts or wishing some one ill also.
Negative:
Tough to follow in real world.
October 7th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
positive effects: Catholic education – moral values and esprit de corps.
negative effects: I’m related to born-again fundamentalists hell-bent on saving me from hell fire and eternal damnation.
August 26th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
I don’t follow any religions, but I am studying Taoism.
positive effect- Love every one include your enemy.
negative effect- If you do anything wrong, just ask God for forgiveness.
August 22nd, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Hello,
Positive effect – There is right and wrong – there is a right moral upright way to behave and live
Negative effect – 1 or Zero, true or false, good or evil, – Absolute values with no middle ground that is applicable to real life situations.
Bill
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
1.that some of the moral attributes of religious memes like the 10 commandments and the sermon on the mount and the middle way teachings have had some positive influence on me.2.the negativity of some religious memes like those that influence the jihadists and suicide side bombers and the absoluteness of the teachings of orthordox and organized religion make me really question.
July 22nd, 2009 at 3:22 am
Since I’ve become a Buddhist, the idea that “reality” is an illusion created by my own mind has been rather comforting. To know that I can create, change, and even ignore what I perceive to be “real” is liberating.
I was raised Catholic, and many of the memes from that spiritual tradition left me wracked with unnecessary guilt more often than I can remember. Not for me.
July 20th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Positive effects that religious memes have had on my life:
“God is in the details”
“Early to bed, early to rise, work and pray like hell and exercise”
Negative effects that religious memes have had on my life:
confusion
anxiety
doubt
July 20th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Positive – challenged my thinking and caused me to expand it.
Negative – frustration caused by intolerance and close-mindedness of followers.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:44 am
positive boadened my perception in certain ways
negative limited my perception in other ways
June 21st, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Positive meme – Opportunity to become more self aware, recognition of others and the broader community.
Negative meme – To be part of the religion you have to be part of the rituals.
June 5th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
a code to live by
no negative
although evil can be present in the church
June 5th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
On the positive side, religious memes have given me hope and some sort of signposts for living and surviving with others in this world. On the negative side; religious memes have led to chauvinistic fears in some people that can only be overcome by annihilating me because I carry different memes (to these people).
May 26th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Positive Treat others as you would be treated
Negative 911
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:52 am
Positive effect? Not very much, actually, perhaps a sense of peace that comes from believing that everything will be okay, that there is some intelligence guiding things.
Negative effect? The fact that one must operate on “faith,” that is, that the reality as declared by religion need not be proved, has left me with a big missing piece. I can no longer tolerate the irresolvable contradictions and hypocrisy promoted by organized as well as new age religion. Religion has succeeded as a meme in part by arrogating the entire domain of morality, as if the only choice for one who desires to act virtuously is to operate under the guidance of religious doctrine.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
From the positive – the ‘rules’ of many religeons aren’t actually a bad away to live – be kind to strangers, try to be a good person etc. As ideals they are okay but ont he negative – such rules are restrictive and are very much “im right your wrong”.
May 7th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I am catholic, however, since my college day; I start to not believe in what they taught me when I was young as it cannot be proved in any shapes or forms – in my thinking anyway. I do pray a lot but nothing make it happen like doing it yourself and do it again, fix, correct, adjust and do it again – again and again.
Positive effect:
I think that killing people is bad.
Praying when I wish good things to happen for my parents, brothers + their family, for my wife + her family does give me a good feeling.
I stop praying for myself a long time ago.
Negative effect: So many hours of praying and false hope that it will happen.
P.s.
No more negative effect of religious memes on me now directly.
However, indirectly, I am still suffering from all religion-based memes such as, the absolutes of ‘right vs wrong’, ‘good vs bad’, ‘men vs women’, ’salesman vs customer’ and ‘managers vs employees’.
Why can’t we just be friend and living together peacefully and listen and discussed openly in any matters?
May 4th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
The positive side of religious memes are that I can repect the right of each and every individual to take on the power of self belief associated with the memes. I have seen many people remain positive and stay strong for themself and for those closest to them because of their religious belief.The negative side of religious memes include too many disasters to even start writing about, however in a nutshell, I would suggest for me it is the erosions of true and other perspectives, the narrow mindedness, the lack of global respect and the abuse of power.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:14 am
Positives: Jesus. MIni-church. God as redeemer. The golden rule
Jesus, as a positive force, used his charismatic abilities to do good things for people, made the supreme human sacrifice. The Mini-church, not mega-church, but as a local group of people in a local community. Like a home for your spirit, like an extended spiritual family. God as redeemer. Sometimes you need to feel clean again, in spirit. Sometimes you need to shoulder off your burdens onto a higher, benevolent power. Sometimes you need a source of spiritual courage, especially in making difficult decisions and following through on difficult actions. The golden rule. As a meme for awareness of other people’s feelings and the importance that has, in the actions you take.
Negatives. Mega-church. Extremism. Mega-church can act as source of dogma, and constraints. Can spread to include too many facets of otherwise secular life — other than worship, spiritual redemption, helping others, building communities, etc. Extremism in the name of religion can lead humans to do non-human things. I live 40 miles west of 9/11 “Ground Zero”. Living with “greater security measures” actually means living with a lower level of trust among people, where you are assumed to be a malevolent stranger unless you can identify yourself otherwise.
Interesting: When you can uncover memes and see them for what they are, you have a better capability for dealing with them. You have done a good job here, to make them explicit.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:21 am
Postive: While not an overly religious person, I was made to attend Sunday School and learn about the bible. Having a basic understanding of religion (mostly through memes) has helped me to understand and accept the way others (who are more religious than I) live thier lives and incorporate their religious memes into their value and belief systems. I can accept that it is their choice and right to believe what they want to believe.
Negative: In times of grief, experiencing total dispbelief at some of the comments made by family and friends with strong religious beliefs in an attempt to comfort me. My astonishment that they honestly believe I will find confort also by placing my trust in God.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
The most positive of religious memes in my experience lie in the affirmation of simple messages of worthy values that are predicated on a philanthropic outlook ie our connectedness as humans, love of humanity etc.
Most negative, as a woman who grew up in and abandoned the Catholic Church (and all religion) at a youngish age, is the religious meme that women are subordinate.
April 11th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
+ effect; give me a kind of Certainty!
- effect; hubris
April 10th, 2009 at 12:37 am
a belief to carry you through the darkness
i dont think any negative
April 7th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
+: a reassurance that there is someone to talk to and look after me, those close to me and even the world when all else fails. A sense of spirituality and love without having to analyse it.
- : having an extreme, I am right, you are wrong attitude
March 30th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
My religious beliefs led me into intense self investigation of my motives, thoughts and deeds and instilled a desire to be the best person I could be as I was created with both positive and negative characteristics. This led to reaching out to others with a true desire to assist them in living a more satisfying life.
Religious memes led me to believe that I was a lowly sinful being worthy only of existance from the act of an unknown being to atone for the sin of a person with no comprehension of sin or death if one were to believe the story. I was doomed for something done before I existed. A difficult task indeed! A more carefully crafted playground would have been a bit easier to craft than the laborious process of sacrificial atonement! A bit less gory too!
March 28th, 2009 at 10:01 am
The positive memes are those which improve humanity, social behavior etc. which are probably part of nearly all religions. However, science is not inhuman – far from it!
The negative memes were those which made me spend a lot of energy to overcome them, and those which caused a lot of anxiety when I was young. However, from these memes and the experience, I learned a lot. Sometimes it is not easy to follow consequently a scientifc way (a reassuring lie (wonderful cartoon) is sometimes more comfortable). However religion, due to a closed system of thoughts, constrains development. Science as a method promotes development.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Positive effects of religious meme’s: A basic set of morals that most humans instinctively know is the appropriate way to behave, for example:
You shouldn’t kill another human.
You ought to respect your parents.
You shouldn’t jump the fence and visit with another man’s wife … and so on. You get the point.
Negative effect: It beget’s the following:
“I am right”
“I am right, and therefore you are wrong”
or “You are wrong, and therefore I am right”
“I am right, and you are wrong, which proves that I am right”
“I am right, as spoken to me personally by a higher power, who may or may not exist, but there is no proof as to the existence of the higher power, other than my word, which is of course … right”.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Positive effect: it has taught me to care about other people
Negative: I often wonder how something positive like “love your neighbor” becomes “kill your neighbor”. Many of the things that are mentioned in this lesson are accurate about some groups, but it’s not accurate to characterize all of them (or the institution in general) as the problem. The organizations didn’t commit the murder or the cause the other problems. It was the people within the organizations. And, in almost every instance, those people were acting in a manner inconsistent with their beliefs or teachings.
So, the negative is the reputation that “religion” has gotten because of certain people within certain religions.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
+ : The only religious meme I can see as positive is meditation.
- : What negative effect have religious memes had on YOUR life?
Religious memes survive only one way : If you are not with them, you are against.
Belief is a choice. People should not try to prove of rationalize beliefs. This leads to exclusion, intolerance and atrocities.
March 4th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
The positive effect of religious memes is:
The love meme. That it is a good idea to love all others and that the world is a more positive place with the idea that love is a powerful force effecting us all.
The negative meme is:
The idea of hell and that the rewards of life hang in the balance with ‘heaven’ the reward and ‘hell’ the punishment.
March 4th, 2009 at 4:58 am
I have learn meditation, concentration.
For the negative many things. eg educational system programmed mind not having creative skills earlier in life .
March 1st, 2009 at 4:05 pm
The religious meme influenced me to be honest and loyal in my friendships and associations which has made my life a lot less complicated than it may have been
The negative has undoubtedly been the the habit of seeing the world in term of right and wrong black and white.
March 1st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I suppose some memes, called religious, have a positive effect on my life…give me comfort…but whether they are really religious, or superstitious, i can’t really tell. I try to be careful about not being hubristic…but i don’t know where that is in, for instancce, Christianity. I find spirituality in many things…no time for dogma.
I don’t let other people’s negative effects of their religion impinge on my life. Luckily i don’t live in places where i would not have the right to say this!
February 28th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Everything has been positive for now , I never felt caught in an idea or directed , my religion tell me to think and verify what it s saying and for now everythg is alright with science , ethnic , morality … I’m not saying im right and u re wrong but im saying facts , for now no negative memes …
February 28th, 2009 at 4:03 am
religious memes and positivity–do unto others as you wish them to do unto you.
negativity-jihads and alqaeda all in the name of islam
February 24th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
WOW! Now that is all Super! Food For Thought, Contemplation, Meditation, Analysis, Faith, etc. …
To reply directly on the First Question = Positive Effect = ( having been educated and brought up in the Catholic Religion) =
by virtue of Repetition = Allowed for the development of Sound Moral Principles, Values, Fairness, Love of God and fellow human beings …
More Especially, brought me to a level of Liberation, Freedom, and Free Thinking … (ever so much more could be written here on all of this).
February 14th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
hmmm
+
there is no “higher religion” than the ‘truth’ of evolution cvsx10bvs
seeing the world differently,social justice, human freedom,love of God/creation and fellow humans/brotherhood, calm and mysticism, devotion and pluralism, harmony with nature, the cultivation of interpersonal behaviour, holism in life, the importance of inner sincerity,
-
attempting conversation with blind dogmatism, prejudice,
and
cvs(divided by 10)pvs (past view situation – otherwise known as rearvisionitis)
others relying on suffering to find meaning etc etc
February 12th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Wel, I am not relegious but I am very spiritual. Zen and Buddhism have played a big part in my life on the way to “finding myself”
The negative effects are indirect. I am refering to the challenging communicaton with someone who thinks in absolutes.
February 11th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
+ve: a secondary effect of teaching values which appear to be valuable for a cohesive society: love???, respect, trust and a way to act (such as do to others as you would want them to do to you).
-ve: too many: intolerance, absolutism, etc
February 8th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Positive effect – moral guidance
Negative effects – A fear of the consequences that free will, thought and questioning religion could lead to. For example fear of the Devil, Hell, abandonment, out casting, demoralization, war, being unworthy, torture and being labeled blasphemous. This led to almost stagnation in evolution as fear suppressed original thought and has led many to seek alternative guidance.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I am not an overly religious person, however, I do believe in energy or forces beyond our current knowledge and interacting energies, but I don’t believe this through a loyally religious sense, but know it more through my own thoughts confirmed by experience then in later years confirmed through creditable scientific knowledge; coupled with a critiquing paradigms of knowledge and origins through some excellent state education.
I don’t believe this energy rewards or punishes let alone knows and understands human morality and life, which is sociologically constructed. I do believe that religion is extremely non tolerant of anything different, extremely destructive psychologically and health wise mentally and physically. So that covers the negatives.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Correction – Very religious people have acted very unreligiously. Simple. (I think that’s a word)…
January 12th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Not overly religious but my Christian experiences have instilled the concept of doing what you think is right by people and giving someone a hand if they ask.
Very religious people have acted very religiously. Simple.
January 6th, 2009 at 5:10 am
The positive experiences that I’ve had with any religon have been with Zen Buddhism.
I can still list a thousand atrocities committed by religons.The destruction of cultures,the inquisitions,the jihads..etc.
December 30th, 2008 at 3:45 am
+ Positive; Assurance that there is something more, there is a beyond
- Negative; The different beliefs can be confusing
December 28th, 2008 at 7:00 am
The only positive I can speak of with religon are some of techniques of Zen Buddhism.The buddha was a very pragmatic MAN who said don’t believe me try it for yourself.It is a shame that people distorted his teaching and acquaint him with a god.
Unfortunately there are too many negative effects of religon to name one as worse than the other.The hells and devils and eternal punishments,the superstitious “voodoo-hoodoo”,choose any trauma that is pushed into adolescent minds.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:25 am
Magnificent art, architecture and music.
Friends who become insufferably boring born again Christians.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Religion is created by humans and it has both positive and negative effect on all of us. For me keeping the focus on faith and to be sincere, hard working, devotion and dedication to your work. Through science we need to explore religion and help humans to live a better life.
To be frank I am not very religious and not very much into science. However lately I am finding both very interesting and there is a connection.
Few years back I was visiting a temple and saw middle-aged man in shorts, I asked him whether he would have worn shorts in his office (he seems to be the VC of an company) and immediately replied “No. Then why is not respecting the temple the same way as he is respecting his office. If an office environment does not allow certain kind of attire to be worn, then in a temple why are not respecting the almighty ! -
November 17th, 2008 at 10:42 am
I believe we are a part of God, it is not separate from us, he experiences life through us and we are as powerful as he is.
It makes me sad to see the church lie and get rich at humanity’s expense, thinking that we don’t notice and that they will get away with it.
October 31st, 2008 at 2:52 am
On the positive side, I have to say the first thing that comes to mind is a sense of belonging to something sacred, something holy, being part of a group that holds The Truth.
On the negative side, I concur that believing that we have reached the point of knowing the whole Truth closes our minds to further expanding and growth. The Truth that is supposed to set you free has only made you a slave altogether.
October 13th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
while i don’t disbelieve you, its very hard to suddenly toss away years and years of religious conformity that i have lived under. i am still a believer but in many ways i have always been a doubter. i always look for a reason for punishment, when ever things do not go right.
i need to learn and understand or read and question more………
October 4th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Beethovens Ninth
William Peter Blatty’s, The Excorsist scared the living daylights out of me when I read it too young.
September 29th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Possitive effects: I would have to say the way that I have done things through out my life as I have always tried but some times failed to think of God being right next to me all the time and how I would act if he truely was there.
Negative effect: Haven’t tried to do things other people my age have tried… Never really been “bad”. So some things friends and family talk about I can not relate to because I have always tried to be good for God.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:06 am
POSITIVE — it improved my concentration, Memory as a result of reading religious books It also made me realise how people without education lived by the words uttered by their religious leaders. To believe in something that you cant see, then to have no believe at all. NEGATIVE to believe in faith, to some extent blind faith and be emotional about what u believe in, to certain extent fanatical
September 10th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Positive – Appreciate the world
Negative – Caught up in rituals and beliefs
September 9th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
For quite some time, I had been allowing only memes consistent with universal principles of life to survive within me. Some of those memes happened to be religious memes, as well, but I believe they originated from science. Because of my choice, memes had only positive effect on me. I have become a better human being accumulating riches in terms of money and riches of higher value than money because of the memes. I experience peace of mind or happiness most of the time.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
1. Helping others
2. For a long time believing if I was bad I would go to hell!
August 29th, 2008 at 1:37 am
The positive effect of certain religious memes taught to me were useful as moral guidelines in my life. These memes have given me guidance and strength in difficult times.
The negative effect of many of the same religious memes, that I believe make me a good person, were taught to be THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH (Insert god voice here). Now I find myself in situations where it is very hard to bend or break these rules even in situations where I know and feel that it would be to my advantage to bend or break them.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:39 am
I am an atheist, who loves god.
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:44 am
1. Value of moral discipline.
2. AbsoluteTruth meme blocks imagination and motivation, triggers feelings of smugness, correctness, complacency followed by failure, loss of purpose, self-doubt, fear of making mistakes, avoid starting, human frailty exposed and religious memes meaningless.
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August 16th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
1. To be compasionate towards all forms of life.
2. To believe there is an absolute truth
August 15th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Positive: Religious memes led me back to genetic religion, i.e. experiencing or witnessing the summit of genetic evolution, which is human consciousness. Selfconsciousness is the most basic concrete truth. Its divine effect on them (eg as holy spirit) was realized by ordinary people like Jesus and the Buddha.
Negative: Religious memes clouded my selfconsciousness (genetic divinity) with silly stories about a virgin who had a baby, impossible miracles, walking on water and a God who is “out there” somewhere, being a gigantic male with all kinds of childish emotions like revenge, anger and jealousy and who punishes people for sins he predicted they would do.
August 13th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
All the scripture of various Faiths I have read, teach tolerance and communion with all not only with those of the same belief system. Negativity is added to the fray by the bastardisation of these teaching by men for their own purpose to gain power, glory & wealth. Science does not get off so lightly either, History is polluted with great thinkers who were ostracized by their peers for thoughts too radical for others to even consider. Neither Religion nor Science is guilty of the crimes eluded too in your writing above, Greed, Ego and the human syndrom that create comfort in “absolutes” are the root cause.
As for Fuzzy truths let us start a Meme: is it possible that the true translation of the ancient scripture of “Genesis” indicates God created all in seven periods of time not seven days? This allows both possible truths to coexist, or are we still too arrogant and intolerant to accept the possibilities of both?
August 13th, 2008 at 11:43 am
The meme of ‘treat others as you would be treated yourself’ has had a positive effect in my life. It is a way to live as distinct from a firm belief system.
The meme of ‘intelligent design’ has had a negative and confusing effect on Darwin’s ideas in our society.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:57 am
The first example that pops into consciousness of positive effect from religious memes revolves around what are included in what is known as “The Golden Rule”, such as inspiring treating others as I’d like to be treated… For me, the most experienced negative effects religious memes are related to destructive horrors that humans inflict on each other and other species caused by intolerance to each others “beliefs” and accepting information and doing actions just because a “leader” or “scripture” says it is so and to do so, without consciously investigating potential results and consequences on health of the planet and all inhabitants.
August 12th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
A useful religious meme is that of ‘law and order’ – where groundrules are written down and are sort of kept by various dedicated people. It helps keep the area where I live reasonably safe from predators.
Exclusion and the activities of ‘the chosen’ who arrange all manner of obstacles to keep ‘outsiders’ from entering into various professions (aha!) and rocking their anchored boat. (Or is that ‘run aground’?)
August 11th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
The enjoyment of religious art. Grandiose temples and churches appealed to the masses with forms of entertainment to entice the senses: food, wine, water, fragrance, architecture, music, books, art, and rituals to get people coming back. Every once in a while I bet they gave a sermon in there some where…
Negative effect on society that there is one way to do things and that is Gods way. Religion (Christian mainly) has crept its way into (as you said) business, courts, laws, education, entertainment-mainly film, collective behavior-blessing someone when they sneeze, thanking, swearing or using profanity to God. Saying ‘thank God it’s Friday’.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
The possitive memes would surviving out on the road in the worst part of Pheniox Arz. for a year with my sister ,her daughter, 2 dogs and 2 cats in a station wagon. If it were not for our beliefs we would of never made it.
Arguements that I get into with friends who are not religious orintated and try to bully me into their way of thinking or when a certain religious group comes knocking at my door trying to swap me to their way of thinking and will not take ” No I’m sorry I beleive in my way you in yours now lets leave it at that.”