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Christianity is a closed belief system that does not rely on any external references whatsoever in order to justify itself. The system only really works when you grow up with it and assume its teachings gradually. If you were to come across them in adult life, and took them on fresh you would probably be aware that they make no sense in pieces and only as a whole, most of the teachings make very poor logic.

Here is a rough outline of the basic Christian system.

1] God is good.

2] Good is good.

3] Faith is good, blind faith is better.

4] The Bible is true.

5] Things only go in the Bible if they are true.

6] Everything in the Bible is true (this can be taken literally or figuratively.)

7] All other gods are false. (Proof? Are they in the Bible? Aha! QED.)

8] Doubting any of the above points is a sin.

9] Sin may or may not be promoted by Satan.

 

OK, that's it. Instant religion, just add the Bible. Fortunately the Bible is so contradictory and people's ability to believe whatever they want is so great that The Bible is able to justify whatever you want it to justify. Any sins by other Christians are down to misreading the Bible or to the work of Satan. So it is perfectly OK for you to be a Christian and be gay, or kill gays, the Bible says you are right either way.

On top of the basics contained in the Bible we then get dogmas. These are just added in to the mix by whoever is running your bit of the faith at the time, this can be done pretty much at their discretion and retrospective biblical grade authority can be attached to it later. So Mary can be the Mother of God or a false idol raised by the blaspheming Antichrist Bishop of Rome, as the case may be.

It is really quite amazing that such a simple piece of self-hypnosis as this actually works. It works well because it has evolved over 70 or so generations, and that is just since the last major revision in the time of Jesus. Those bits that really work well always get passed down, other bits are neglected. Evolution works to keep the message on-message and effective.

Over time the faith has changed but it has never lost the power to win converts or, far more importantly, to hold the children born into the faith. You might ask why does a faith like this spread itself. For exactly the same reason a computer virus, a chain letter or any organism reproduces; that which can reproduce does reproduce. It is not in the interests of any unseen Mr Big or shady characters it is simply in the nature of the replicating entity to replicate. If it didn't replicate ruthlessly it would not have survived, as it has, from the dawn of civilization.

This is the memetic analysis of Christianity, it exists in a strong and powerful form today because it has successfully replicated itself vertically over 70 generations and horizontally from a few dissidents in a minor outpost of a mighty empire to become a major suite of competing but still co-operating sects that span most of the planet.

The tactic of schism has sometimes helped the Christian faith survive, sometimes it has failed. Failed sects wither away or are absorbed by better adapted sects. The Shakers through death and no natural replacement (they were against even marital sex) the Puritans and 101 flavours of Methodists lost them to other sects. Most sects will die within three generations of their founder, the ones that survive have proved themselves strong and they are unlikely then ever to die.

© 1999 - 2008 by Martin Willett.

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