virus: meme generation

FallAwake@aol.com
Tue, 3 Feb 1998 18:47:58 EST

I try to think sometimes about the start of religions. Did some person just
start hearing voices and decide to write down what they were saying? Or was
it some person who actually knew that they were creating a meme (sorta like a
memetic engineer). When i first discovered this whole deal about memes ideas
became making sense and i started noticing that there were memes everywhere.
I'm trying to discover how memes were and are generated and how they move to
other peoples minds; be it actively or passively.
I can give examples of memes that were actively generated, we are sorrounded
by them, tv commercials, chain letters...
Obviously the CoV was actively created. They say that their trying to "infect
you."
People also actively try to "gain" memes. eg. learning a new language,
reading books...
I can't really give examples of memes that were passively generated. I think
many religions are meme complexes that were passively generated, by some
person taking other peoples words to mean other things they somehow changed
and expanded.
Many if not most memes are passively "gained." People don't know it but for
every "Polish" joke (just as an example) they say, they gain a bigotted meme
against Polish people.

I guess my main goal is to figure out whether or not religions (by religions I
imply ancient religions such as Judaism and Christianity) were created by
someone who knew they were creating an idea, or by someone who honestly
believed they were interacting with a divine being.

~the great tinkerer
(you can guess that that is something along the lines with "memetic engineer")