Christianity is a Virus

Reading a conversation on usenet recently, I saw one person claim (well, imply) that the fact of Christianity's growth from a small sect to the largest religion in the world was, in itself, something like a miracle;  or not so much a 'miracle' as it was proof that Christianity was a God's plan for the world.

The other person responded by citing historical factors, cultural factors, political factors especially in the critical period around the Roman adoption of Christianity.  All accurate and true, but to me a little unsatisfying.  All that sort of explains how Christianity spread but not why.

The line of thought is familiar to me.  Historical/anthropological work I've read from the late 19th/early 20th century often carry the implication that the progression from polytheism to monotheism to Christianity represents a progress from less civilized/less scientific to more civilized/more scientific.  Again, I assume the continual growth of Christianity largely inspires this belief.  I think the tremendous success of Christianity is taken as a sign of it's superiority.

Anyway, for these and other reasons I think it is interesting to examine why Christianity has been so successful.


What is Christianity?

Like any religion, Christianity is a set of instructions.

These instructions are generally imperatives:  actions which must be taken or be avoided.

In many ways Christianity, or any religion, can be likened to a computer program.

I don't personally believe that the human mind can be completely modelled by a Turing-machine style computer model.  I do think though that many forms of human mental activity can be very accurately modelled by computer models.  Take tying your shoes in the morning, for instance.  You almost certainly don't actually 'think' about this at all, but rather proceed by a set of linear instructions.  Wrap laces, pull tight, form loop, cross second loop under, pull.

A modelling process will often have explanatory power not available in a more comprehensive examination.  When someone designs an automobile, for instance, they will ignore relativity physic and quantum physics.  Technically, the physics they are using are 'wrong', but within the operating conditions of an automobile the difference is infinitesimal, and it would be practically impossible to design an automobile otherwise.

A religion then, in general, can be likened to a computer program.  Religious instructions are concerned largely with social and psychological hygiene.  They are supposed to be present at all times, and to become active when relevant situations arise.  Offer a devout Hindu a ride to the store in your car;  no conflict with religious principles detected, he's free to accept.  Offer him a McDonald's hamburger, big conflict, action refused.

The religion program, then, installs itself as part of the operating system, reloads itself when the operating system reloads (when you turn your computer off and then back on again, that long period you wait through while the computer scrolls esoteric-looking text up the screen then pauses on the Windoze/Clouds logo is the computer loading the operating system.  When you are actually running the computer, there will be anywhere from a half-dozen to several dozen major background tasks running, each of which could be subdivided into a half-dozen to a dozen sub-tasks.  Your computer is constantly monitoring mouse movements to check for user input and to conduct mouse animation, for instance;  the multimedia engine is handling possible sound/graphics;  message passing, virtual memory, etc.)

All system input and output is filtered through the religion engine to check for possible response imperatives.  (Very much the way mouse activity in a computer is filtered for user input).

So far, the Christianity program is essentially the same as other religions.  Sets of social behavior rules are added to the survival imperative rules.

Several additional rules/rule-sets distinguish Christianity.

1.  Eternal damnation.

Many or most religions suppose the existence of some sort of 'hell' for evil people.  Generally, the basic deal is, your internal state is externalized after you die.  'Hell' is, therefore, characterized by a sort of strict poetic justice.  (Consider Dante's 'Inferno'.)  Hell in most religions is not strictly a punishment of non-belief.  In the dynastic Egyptian judgement, for instance, the soul of the deceased is weighed against a feather:  if the soul is heavier, it is cast into hell.  It seems clear that the 'lightness of the soul is a metaphor for a psychological state.  It isn't the strict observance of religious hygiene which is judged, but the results of the success/failure of that observance.  (Even Dante, bless his beard, tries to integrate something similar into Christian Catholicism, but he has to cheat a little.  The Jewish patriarchs, obviously blameless, holy, men, are consigned to a sort of 'hell but not really a hell', because they were not Christians.  Sort of 'Hell lite'.)

In Christianity, anybody who is not a Christian goes to hell.  You must 'accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour' to avoid hell.  Obviously, this means you must accept the Christian rule-set, without modification, and no other (since accepting any other religion, even in part, would imply the belief that some aid in achieving Salvation was possible from the other religion, in which case you had not completely 'accepted Jesus as your personal saviour') even in part.

Islam and Judaism share this, to a more limited extent.  No other religion does, to my knowledge (perhaps Zoroastrianism, in a sense).  In other religions, it is the attainment of a 'pure' psychological state which counts.

Furthermore Christian hell is definitely eternal.  Which is strange, because the language in which the earliest versions of the New Testament were written had no way of expressing 'eternal', and actually say 'eons and eons';  several thousand years.

But of course, right-thinking Christians know that what they really meant was 'forever'.


2.  Evangelism.

This, really, follows inevitably from the idea that 'only Christianity is sufficient for salvation'.

In a universe with a sane God for a creator, obviously everyone should at least get a chance at salvation.  So, the need to 'go out and spread the good news' (the 'good news' evidently being 'you're fucked for eternity if you don't do what I tell you') was strongly emphasized from early on.


So, the Christian instruction set is distinguished by an absolute imperative to reproduce itself as often as possible, without the slightest modification.  And as with any religion, it is coded to maintain it's existence on the host system as tenaciously as possible.

This, for those of you less familiar with computer-geek concepts, is ideal virus behavior.

Given an absolute lack of virus protection routines, it is reasonable to expect such a virus to spread indefinitely, to the limits of connectivity.

Christianity is a virus.


Returning to an earlier point, a critic might ask:  "But isn't this just a model?  Can you reasonably apply a computer model to a human institution?"

I would say, not without critical analysis or in all cases.  But, in this case I think we have explained a phenomenon which otherwise evaded explanation.

Like the analogy of automobile design, we have explained something which could not be explained otherwise.

Of course, the 'it's a miracle!' explanation as an alternative holds as much water as it ever did.