[ExI] Eden, deep memes, exodus from the Ape God

[Mike Dougherty]

2012/1/14 Will Steinberg <steinberg.will at gmail.com>

> Yes...I was a bit too far-reaching in calling this the origin of *all*
> human beliefs.  I still believe it is extremely plausible, though, that a
> group of humans existed whose memory of past culture transmuted into many
> of today's monotheistic beliefs.  An even broader point, though, would be
> that the number of ancient societies whose memetic memories formed modern
> culture is probably low--because successful beliefs eradicate unsuccessful
> ones--and so I would predict that part of prehistory was a 'civilization'
> bottleneck leading to rather similar belief systems for many, many of their
> descendants.
>
> I hate to be so cynical, but I think you're still too far-reaching.  It
much easier to see "our father" as a simple generalization of a literal
father figure and to view all humanity as siblings in an otherwise
primitive family.  There's not much more in that memeplex that requires any
kind of complexity to extrapolate.  The whole things is almost too
simplistic.  Therein lies its appeal and longevity.
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