The Meme Machine

RELIGIONS AS MEMEPLEXES 197
There are several ways in which memes might have influenced genes. Priests
attain power and status by predicting (or appearing to predict) weather, disease,
or crop failures; by building or being associated with temples and other grand
buildings; by wearing expensive and impressive clothes; and by claiming
supernatural powers. In many cultures the priests or rulers are given divine
status. We know that women prefer to mate with high-status men, and that these
men leave more offspring, either by having more wives or by fathering children
by women who are not their wives. Even in societies in which the priesthood is
celibate and could not (or at least should not) pass on their genes, other people
could acquire power by association. If this religious behaviour helped people
acquire more mates, then any genes that inclined them to be more religious in
the first place would also flourish. In this way genes for religious behaviour
would increase because of religious memes.
The idea of ‘genes for religious behaviour’ is not at all implausible – all it
means is genes that make people more inclined towards religious beliefs and
behaviour. Brain development is under genetic control and it is known that
some brains are more prone to religious belief and experience than others. For
example, people with unstable temporal lobes are more likely to report mystical,
psychic and religious experiences, and to believe in supernatural powers, than
those with stable temporal lobes (Persinger 1983). Like many other
psychological variables, religiosity is known to have a heritable component even
today. For example, identical twins are more similar in religiosity than nonidentical
twins or siblings. In our past there may have been as much genetically
controlled variation in religious behaviour as there is now, or even more. If so,
two effects are possible. First, the memetic environment could have influenced
whether genes for religious behaviour were positively selected or not (increasing
or decreasing religious behaviour in general). Second, the religion of the time
could have influenced the kinds of genes that survived (i.e. those that produced
the kind of religious behaviour best suited to that religion). That would be
memetic driving at work.
Group selection
There is another way in which religious memes might conceivably drive the
genes: through group selection. The whole concept of group selection has had a
troubled history and been beset by controversy. Earlier this century it was
invoked to explain all kinds of behaviours that might conceivably benefit groups
or societies, and biologists often appealed to ‘group adaptations’ or ‘the good of