A religion is just a meme that people take seriously.

loaExMachina@sh.itjust.works to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 103 points –
23

In the original Dawkins sense of the word, this is explicitly so. Strictly speaking, memes are just ideas that use us to replicate. A worldview is an idea. Pogrom ergo sum, so to speak.

I thought so, wasn't sure, was about to double check and then figured some wise soul in the comments would know. And here we are.

First time I ever encountered the word meme was in regards to religion.

Exactly. Spreading and replicating like viruses across host bodies. And just like certain viruses, some can stay dormant for years, never fully going away - e.g. "The Game" (sorry not sorry). :p

Or maybe a state-provided headcanon of a fanfiction?

Religious sects are just factions with differing headcanons about their religious text’s characters.

You've gotta read Hindu mythology.

Literally just a bunch of village priests trying to out Marvel Hero each other on power levels. Think DBZ on acid.

Things... may have gotten a bit out of hand...

And aren't they inverted in Zoroastrianism? All the good guys are evil, and vice versa

Shit is dope as hell, now I wanna go play that old Asura's Rage game

The way you describe it, sounds pretty fun tbh.

It's not, not fun, but it's also more acid-soaked than anything you can imagine.

More like a fiction tale that people take seriously. But also, maybe a meme in the original meaning of the word, before it became funny internet pictures

I had both Dawkin's definition and internet memes in mind as I wrote this, since I don't think they're so different in the end. A meme (even in the modern sense) doesn't have to be a funny image: In can be a practice, like rickrolling; a text like copypastas, a story -true or fictional, like "operation baja-blast" or creepypastas. Some combine several of these things, like the meme "loss.jpg" contains the comic's story, it's pannels, and the behaviour of hiding the loss symbol or finding it. All of these things are also what religions are made off!

Internet memes are Dawkins memes, you don't have to think they're not different when that's the case.