Since every meme must have good and bad effects, why is one meme a disease? This will depend partly on how you analyze “disease.” Depending on that analysis, it might depend on some qualitative difference. One qualitative difference is that some memes keep you from criticizing it. For instance, a religious meme teaches that salvation comes from good thoughts, including belief in the deity, will substantially prevent questioning the deity. In light of recent work in social psychology on the “Spinozan” theory of understanding, understanding doctrine requires tentatively believing it. This puts understanding criticism of the religion meme outside of the believer’s scope. I develop this view and apply it to both religion and morality in Unraveling the mystery of morality: The unity of comprehension and belief explains moralism and faith
Since every meme must have good and bad effects, why is one meme a disease? This will depend partly on how you analyze “disease.” Depending on that analysis, it might depend on some qualitative difference. One qualitative difference is that some memes keep you from criticizing it. For instance, a religious meme teaches that salvation comes from good thoughts, including belief in the deity, will substantially prevent questioning the deity. In light of recent work in social psychology on the “Spinozan” theory of understanding, understanding doctrine requires tentatively believing it. This puts understanding criticism of the religion meme outside of the believer’s scope. I develop this view and apply it to both religion and morality in Unraveling the mystery of morality: The unity of comprehension and belief explains moralism and faith
Traditionally, whether a symbiote is a disease or not to a biologist is down to whether it has a negative impact on its host’s fitness.