‘The God Virus’ analyzes religion from disapproving standpoint

The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture by Darrel W. Ray, Ed.D., IPC Press, Bonner Springs, Kansas, ISBN 978-0-9709505-1-2, $15.95, 234 pages.

Reviewed by Fred Reiss, Ed.D.

WINCHESTER, California–In the mid-1970, Richard Dawkins shook up the fields of biology and genetics with his book, The Selfish Gene. In this work, Dawkins argues that the gene, the basic transmitter of heredity, acts to maximize the probability that the gene is globally passed on, rather than the unique characteristics of the individual. 

The Selfish Gene also proposes the existence of the meme, the cultural equivalent of the gene. That is, a culture acts to propagate itself intact without “worrying” about its effect on any one member—there is selfishness about the way culture is passed on from one generation to another. For Dawkins, the only way to comprehend a culture is to understand that culture from the meme’s point of view. A culture is the shared set of beliefs and expectations of a group of people, which produce powerful norms that shape both the individual and subgroups. At the deepest level, they are society’s tacit assumptions. Examples of transmitters are stories; legends; heroes; slogans and catch phrases; sexual, racial, and ethnic attitudes; and so forth.

Psychologist Darrel W. Ray, in The God Virus, relying on Dawkins, puts forward the idea that there is a religious carrier, which acts to maintain the religion; even if it means the loss of the individual transporter. For example, some religions require its priests to give up marriage and procreation so that the priest can devote his/her whole life to transmitting the religion, or in Ray’s words, “spreading the god virus.” Ray telegraphs his feelings about religions by calling this carrier a virus rather than a more neutral term, like faith-meme, or devotion-meme. After all, no one has contracted a virus he actually liked.

Having been raised in a religiously fundamentalist home, Ray experienced this virus first hand. He admirably articulates how religions have adopted a series of tools to capture the mind and invade the body. Among these are: delivering the god-message when the child is young, fostering guilt, and controlling sexual behavior. Religions infect through ritual practices, as well. Will the Muslim make the sign of the cross? The Christian kiss the mezuzah? The Jew take communion?

Because successful religions are deeply embedded in culture, he notes that religions must constantly adapt to an ever changing morality and culture, while at the same time refer back to a fictitious time when the religion was in a pure state. Ray is disturbed by the fact that religions preach morality, yet there are far few atheists in prison than true believers. Morality is a function of culture not religion. When a preacher speaks of morality, he is referring to acts that will foster the spread of the god virus, not enhance society. A Catholic priest says have more children. Does he mean let’s have more Muslim children?

Ray knows that the god virus can spread faster than ever because of televangelism and the Internet. In addition, evangelism has spread further and faster because it no longer requires the initiate to hold a set of beliefs, like the virgin birth and some form of creationism, before admission. “Once converted, the newly infected soon learn that there are more beliefs than they were told.” Yet, more insidious than this is the shift in evangelism from just proselytizing to working to elect public officials who share common evangelical beliefs.

Ray notes that a number of different polls show that about ninety percent of the general population believes in a personal god and a life after death, but only forty percent of bachelor-level scientists hold the same beliefs. Ninety percent of eminent scientists had no belief in a god or an afterlife. Consequently, Ray concludes that the best way to defeat the god virus is though improved science education, which he expects will lead to a growth in secularism, the enemy of all religions.

Judging from the lack of success of science education in our schools (both public and private), it seems unlikely that religion has much to fear from science education. However, Ray makes that important point that the more a religion is the culture, the more it will control our lives. If Ray’s metaphor is accurate, then we need to realize there is no medicine to defeat a virus. The body either successfully defends itself, or dies. Perhaps the best way to prevent a religious takeover of our society is to elect officials who will maintain a strong separation between the church and state. At the polls, “Let the voter beware.”

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Dr. Fred Reiss is a retired public and Hebrew school teacher and administrator. He is the author of The Standard Guide to the Jewish and Civil Calendars; Public Education in Camden, NJ: From Inception to Integration; Ancient Secrets of Creation: Sepher Yetzira, the Book that Started Kabbalah, Revealed; and Reclaiming the Messiah.