I’m about to finish reading The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture by Darrel W. Ray. It’s been quite a trip. He maintains the metaphor of religion as a virus throughout, using terminology such as “vector” for priests, rabbis, ministers and imams, “virus/viral” for religion/religious, and “infected” as a term for those who have been convinced and converted to religion.
I had never considered things in these terms, but the metaphor seems to work well. Religions spread in the same way that viruses replicate, going through mutations and competition, lying dormant and making an appearance when confronted by the right combination of factors, etc.
I’m fascinated by the book and just wanted to share it with you.
It is a fascinating read for me too, and makes a lot of sense. One thing that comes to mind while reading the book are changes I've seen and experienced within Catholicism. During the 60's there was the wearing of a small veil to mass, a requirement for the women and girls and the prohibition from eating any meat on Fridays. Today, women wear slacks to church and the meat restrictions were lifted decades ago.
ReplyDeleteIt is also an interesting correlation of religion working like a parasite by its constant mutations in order to keep the god-virus alive and viable in a changing environment. True, cultural changes do require religion to change so as to survive.
Even within the Messianic movement there has been a change from the Fundamentalists mainstream line of thought, that of the original Evangelical J4J group. Now the more stealth, Messianic movement of a Torah observant Paul and a Gentile assimilation into the Jewish religion with Torah observant expectations while still maintaining a belief in Jesus and his necessary death for an atonement. Same belief, only more sophisticated and virulent.