5. Give an example of a "consilience" explanation to one specific religious phenomenon (e.g., why do people worship snakes, etc.). Be sure to choose your own example.
Consilience is the understanding that each branch of knowledge studies a subset of reality that depends on other branches. Many religious phenomenons cannot be studied in isolation. Math underlies the working of physics, which studies chemistry, and it continues on with biology, psychology, sociology, and then we are able to understand theology.
A good example of consilience would be speaking in tongues. The biology of speaking of tongues could be explained as an abnormality of the mind. However, it could be normal depending on ones social environment. At the psychological level, doctors have said that speaking in tongues may be healthy regression of the ego. At the sociological level, speaking in tongues could very well be a learned behavior. People that belong to cults and heathen religions have also experienced speaking this phenomenon so speaking in tongues cannot only be attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit.
6. How can the theory of memetics help in understanding WHY certain religions are more successful than others (in terms of popularity) in the USA? Be sure to explain how memes are different than genes.
A meme is a unit of cultural information. They are the building blocks of people’s thoughts that are passed on to others. A gene is spread from one organism to another as a unit of genetic information and of biological evolution. Memetics takes concepts from the theory of evolution and applies them to human culture. Genes are passed on from one generation to the next through reproduction. Like genes, memes are passed from one person sharing their ideas or beliefs wi ...