(10) MEME of all Memes

One of the thoughts that has lingered in the back of my mind

for a long time is that of God as a meme that has been playing

back and forth for millennia--probably going back at least to the

Neanderthals, a kindred hominid that likely preceded Homo

Sapians.  

The word "meme" is now fairly familiar in our vocabulary, but

it's still a fairly recent word.  The meme was coined by the 

evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins back in 1976.   

Interesting, too, another great scientist E.O. Wilson also

stumbled upon the meme about the same time, only he

coined it the "culturgen."  

So what is a meme?  According to recent dictionary accounts it

is an "idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person

within a culture."  The meme is a unit that involves ideas, symbols,

rituals, writing that can be transmitted not only from culture to

culture, but from age to age.

This leads me back to my idea of God as a meme, or put more

poetically the "MEME of all Memes."  One can trace this God Meme

from pre-cultural times to the earliest city states, to civilizations.

This meme, of course, has taken on many different forms.  Hence

we have different religious imagery in different cultures.  

Nonetheless this God Meme has been persistent.  It sticks with

us, even as it changes or evolves.

What I find fascinating is the thought  that the God Meme does

indeed seem to evolve, albeit seemingly cropping forth from an

earlier rendition.  It's like this God Meme keeps growing in our

minds, taking us along for a long fascinating ride.  

Just my own thought about this, but just maybe the God Meme

is purposeful--in that as it evolves, it evolves us.  This meme

would seem a two-way street.  The God Meme seemingly

affects how we interpret God, how we "grow" God as our minds

continue to mature.  And perhaps we mature because of how

we tend or try to understand God from ever new perspectives.

Today we are on the brink of understanding the universe in far

more perceptive ways than ever before, via science and 

technology.  So it's surely understandable that our interpretation(s)

of God evolves, as we view Creation (our surroundings) in ever new 

ways.  So, it's not surprising that God seems to be changing right before 

our eyes.  The "MEME of all Memes" has constantly been changing

over Time, as we constantly change.  It's not something unexpected.