From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Mon Mar 01 1999 - 23:00:01 MST
Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> <big snip>...They just developed faith that if they did as the shaman
> instructed, it would be better. It was not an irrational belief,
> because it really worked....
All this reinforces my earlier notion that there are *plenty* of mechanisms
to explain the rise of god memes. I will toss in yet another: The god
meme supplies a nifty shortcut for instilling the moral values in its members
that any stable society needs. With kids, it is much more difficult to
explain why they need to wash before meals than to just issue
the command, then shriek "Because IM the MOM, THATS why
now DO IT!"
To explain a rather complex prisoner's dilemma situation where
the societal members must all cooperate, it provides a shortcut
to just say "god said so, now shut up and DO IT!" spike
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