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The Age of Rediscovered Biblical Memes

 


In my previous email I mentioned the word “meme.” It comes from science and understanding what memes are and how they work is an essential requirement for accurately understanding any form of human communication received by the brain from the eyes or ears. By accurate I mean “understanding what the memes communicated meant to their Source (speaker or author).”

 

Take a moment think about the underlined words above. I believe we are at a critical juncture in the history of our biblical heritages:

 

We have entered “The Age of Rediscovered Biblical Memes!”

 

Understanding that our Bibles are like “flash drives” in which memes are stored is really exciting! “The brain generates human realities from belief models created by the memes it has.” By being aware of the memes in our Bibles, we are able to understand the words of our Bibles more like their authors understood them. Today I will give you a quick overview of memes. In future emails I will apply that information to words in our Bibles, beginning with “rediscovering the memes of Jesus.”

 

Memes 101

 

A meme is a unit of cultural information spread by imitation. The term meme (from the Greek mimema, meaning “imitated”) was introduced in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his work The Selfish Gene. Dawkins conceived of memes as the cultural parallel to biological genes. Memes carry information, are replicated, and are transmitted from one person to another. 

 

● Within a culture, memes can take a variety of forms, such as an idea, a skill, a behavior, a phrase, a fashion, an institutional truth, etc.

 

● The replication and transmission of a meme occurs when one person copies a unit of cultural information comprising a meme from another person.

 

● The process of transmission is carried out primarily by means of verbal, visual, or electronic communication, ranging from books and conversation to television,

e-mail, or social media programs on the Internet.

 

The brain receives memes based on different types of information:

 

● An individual-based meme is information someone trusts, or places confidence in (whether factual or not).

 

● An institutional-based meme is a meme created by an institution and backed by authority.

 

● A fact-based meme relies on no humans or institutions for its existence.

 

The subconscious function treats the memes above as if they are identical. The conscious level must become involved to make distinctions between them. The subconscious creates belief models from the memes it places the most confidence in. The brain searches for patterns in incoming information that matches and confirms it belief models.

 

Belief models are complex meme structures that contain names,

meanings, and strategies for actions to take when a pattern is recognized.

 

The main sensory organs for the brain to receive memes are the eyes and ears. The universal and most effective way to replicate and spread belief models is through narratives – stories.  

 

Stories are to the brain what food is to the stomach.

Stories are the glue that holds members of human collectives together.

 

Many of the most ancient stories of cultures are recorded in religious texts. Now we are ready to begin “rediscovering the memes of Jesus.”

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

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