The document discusses memes as conceptualized by Richard Dawkins as units of cultural transmission or imitation that replicate and evolve through social learning in a similar way that genes replicate and evolve biologically. Key points include: - Memes include ideas, beliefs, fashion trends, and other cultural phenomena that spread from person to person via imitation. - Memes operate through natural selection and compete to spread more successfully through populations like genes. - Religion and religious beliefs can be understood as particularly successful memes that confer advantages to aid their replication such as faith-based thinking and linking altruism to religious affiliation.

1. From Gene to Meme From the Replication of Organisms to the Replication of Ideas

5. What is a Meme? Meme: /meem/ • (noun) An element of behavior or culture passed on by imitation or other non-genetic means . Comes from the Greek root mimeme . It was abbreviated by Richard Dawkins.