Alister McGrath in his book, Dawkins’ God, Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life, discusses Dawkins’ Meme theory and its uselessness as a scientific theory. Describing Dawkins’ meme McGrath says, “People do not believe in God because they have given long and careful thought to the matter, they do so because they have been infected by a powerful meme. (This idea would later be developed in terms of the imagey of God as virus).” But as McGrath then points out, “Dawkins does not deal with how atheism spreads on the basis of his memetic approach” (pp. 123,124).
Having read both Dawkins’ TGD and McGrath on the Meme theory this subheading in The Times (29-10-08) caught my eye, “Darwin’s theory is being stretched to absurdity by those who overlook the obvious differences between Man and animals.” Says Raymond Tallis in concluding his article, “Meme theory, which sidelines human agency and pictures the human mind as something between a junkyard and a lumber room, is the reduction to absurdity of evolutionary psychology. It is what happens when science gives way to scientism; when Darwinism is traduced and Darwinitis results.” It is quite unusual indeed to read an article unsympathitic to Darwinism in The Times.
