Viruses are a pain

In The Meme Machine, she called religions "memeplexes", intellectual viruses that have survived not because they are true but because they excel at replication and infection. To put it another way, religions are just extremely successful chain letters.

I love this statement. Religion as a virus I think is a perfect analogy. Religion has its ups and downs, I being an agnostic tend to see the down sides to most religions. I could always find faults in religions theories and teachings, I usually got scolded for pointing them out too (hence why I'm an agnostic, I can't find a religion that I can agree with enough to live by). So I personally have taken a little bit of every religion that I have come across and sort of made my own belief system. For some people this isn't an option. Religion has been so ingrained in their minds that it is impossible for them to see outside or the bigger picture. A virus affects people on different levels, affects them more than others. So does Religion. Some people are blinded by religion but if it makes them happy then let me be blind. Natural selection will take over eventually and kick our asses, its been long over-do. Religion does have its up, just like a virus. Once you have gotten rid of a specific virus, you build up an immunity to some parts and don't have much trouble from it again. You become stronger because of it, Religion is the same in some aspects. It can blind some people but it can also make them stronger in the right doses.