Editing Susan Blackmore (section)

==Memetics and religious culture==
{{external media | width = 210px | headerimage=[[File:Susan Blackmore 1.jpg|210px]] | float = right | video1 = [https://www.webofstories.com/playAll/susan.blackmore?sId=55101 What are memes?], [[Web of Stories]] }}

Susan Blackmore has made contributions to the field of [[memetics]].<ref name="Aunger2000">{{cite book|last=Aunger|first=R.|title=Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science|year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780192632449}}</ref> The term ''meme'' was coined by [[Richard Dawkins]] in his 1976 book ''[[The Selfish Gene]]''. In his foreword to Blackmore's book ''The Meme Machine'' (1999), Dawkins said, "Any theory deserves to be given its best shot, and that is what Susan Blackmore has given the theory of the meme."<ref>{{harvc|last= Dawkins |first= Richard|author-link=Richard Dawkins  |chapter= Foreword|in=Blackmore|year=1999|p=xvi}}</ref> Other treatments of memes, that cite Blackmore, can be found in the works of Robert Aunger: ''The Electric Meme'',<ref name="Aunger2002">{{cite book|last=Aunger|first=R.|title=The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think|year=2002|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9780743201506|url=https://archive.org/details/electricmemenewt0000aung}}</ref> and Jonathan Whitty: ''A Memetic Paradigm of Project Management''.<ref>{{cite journal |title= A memetic paradigm of project management |url= http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv.php?pid=UQ:8801&dsID=sjw_ijpm_05.pdf |journal= International Journal of Project Management |volume= 23 |issue= 8 |pages= 575–83 |doi= 10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.06.005 |access-date= 19 July 2013 |last= Whitty |first= J.|year= 2005 |citeseerx= 10.1.1.513.2861 }}</ref>

Blackmore's treatment of memetics insists that memes are true evolutionary replicators, a second replicator that like [[genetics]] is subject to the [[Darwinian algorithm]] and undergoes evolutionary change.<ref name= "PBS Evolution">{{cite episode |title= Susan Blackmore: Memetic Evolution |url= https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/07/2/l_072_05.html |series= Evolution: "The Minds Big Bang" |network= [[PBS]] |station= [[WGBH-TV|WGBH]] |year= 2001 |type= video}}</ref> Her prediction on the central role played by imitation as the cultural replicator and the [[neural]] structures that must be unique to humans in order to facilitate them have recently been given further support by research on [[mirror neurons]] and the differences in extent of these structures between humans and the presumed closest branch of simian ancestors.<ref name= "Hurley&Chater">{{cite book |title= Perspectives on Imitation: From Neuroscience to Social Science |volume= I: Mechanisms of Imitation and Imitation in Animals |editor1-first= S. |editor1-last= Hurley |editor2-first= N. |editor2-last= Chater |first= M. |last= Iacoboni |chapter= Chapter 2: Understanding Others: Imitation, Language and Empathy |location= Cambridge, MA |publisher= [[MIT Press]] |year= 2005 |pages= [https://books.google.com/books?id=qiW3Yc9b6GAC&pg=PA77 77–100] |isbn= 9780262582506}}</ref>

At the February 2008 [[TED conference]], Blackmore introduced a special category of memes called ''temes''. Temes are memes which live in technological artifacts instead of the human mind.<ref name= "Wired temes">{{cite news |title= Humans Are Just Machines for Propagating Memes |url= https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/02/ted_blackmore?currentPage=all |last= Zetter |first= K. |date= 29 February 2008 |work= [[Wired (website)|Wired website]]}}</ref><!-- remarked out for 3rd party ref <ref name= "TED temes">{{cite web |title= Susan Blackmore: Memes and "temes" |url= http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html |date= February 2008 |format= video of lecture |work= [[TED conference |TED Conferences]] website |last= Blackmore |first= S.}}</ref> -->

Blackmore has written critically about both the flaws and redeeming qualities of religion, having said,<ref name="Zen Science">{{cite book |title= Neurotheology: Brain, Science, Spirituality, Religious Experience |editor-last= Rhawn |editor-first= R. |chapter= Zen into Science |chapter-url= http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Chapters/NeurotheologyZen.htm |publisher= University Press |location= San Jose, CA |year= 2002 |last= Blackmore |first= S. |isbn= 9780971644588 |pages= 159–161}}</ref><ref name="bha"/> <blockquote>All kinds of infectious memes thrive in religions, in spite of being false, such as the idea of a creator god, [[virgin birth (mythology)|virgin birth]]s, the subservience of women, [[transubstantiation]], and many more. In the major religions, they are backed up by admonitions to have faith not doubt, and by untestable but ferocious rewards and punishments.</blockquote>

<blockquote>...most religions include at least two aspects which I would be sorry to lose. First is the truths that many contain in their mystical or spiritual traditions; including insights into the nature of self, time and impermanence [...] The other is the rituals that we humans seem to need, marking such events as birth, death, and celebrations. Humanism provides a non-religious alternative and I have found the few such ceremonies I have attended to be a refreshing change from the Christian ones of my upbringing. I am also glad that these ceremonies allow for an eclectic mixture of songs, music and words. In spite of my lack of belief I still enjoy the ancient hymns of my childhood and I know others do too. We can and should build on our traditions rather than throwing out everything along with our childish beliefs.</blockquote>In September 2010, Blackmore wrote in ''The Guardian'' that she no longer refers to religion simply as a "virus of the mind", "unless we twist the concept of a 'virus' to include something helpful and adaptive to its host as well as something harmful, it simply does not apply."  Blackmore modified her position when she saw beneficial effects of religion, such as data correlating higher birth rates with the frequency of religious worship, and that "religious people can be more generous, and co-operate more in games such as the [[Prisoner's Dilemma]], and that priming with religious concepts and belief in a 'supernatural watcher' increase the effects".<ref name="BeckerDiewald2011">{{cite book|last=Blume|first=M.|title=Zukunftsperspektiven Im Theologisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Dialog|publisher=[[Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht]]|year=2011|isbn=9783525569573|editor1-last=Becker|editor1-first=P.|location=Göttingen, Germany|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=0w8Q6-OEjHwC&pg=PA306 306–14]|language=de, en|chapter=God in the Brain? How Much Can "Neurotheology" Explain?|editor2-last=Diewald|editor2-first=U.|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/710274}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Blackmore|first=S.|date=16 September 2010|title=Why I no longer believe religion is a virus of the mind|work=The Guardian|location=London|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/sep/16/why-no-longer-believe-religion-virus-mind|access-date=20 July 2013}}</ref>