Today, Christians around the world celebrate the holiday of Easter, the culmination of Christian "Holy Week." In it, the crucifixion and resurrection from the dead of the man-god Jesus Christ two millennia ago is relived. It is a fundamental tenet of the faith that Christ was sent to earth for the purpose of saving mankind from "original sin" through his death. Original sin is described in the Bible as the eating of a forbidden apple. From a naturalist point of view, "original sin" could be reconceptualized as the achieving of self-identity or consciousness, an achievement which we constantly need "saving" from (the unbearable lightness of being).

The Christianity meme, as an adaptive behavior, seems on the surface to be quite advantageous. To believers who take the leap of faith of Christ's salvation, the existentialist angst is removed allowing them to concentrate on survival (this was probably a more profound advantage during the early days of the religion than now). Christianity sets a moral code of "Love thy neighbor as thyself" which is in line with the natural drives of self preservation and group survival, though it greatly expands the definition of "group" to include everyone and not just bloodlines.

Today, a young Palestinian Muslim blew himself up in a diner in Haifa, Israel, killing 14 people. The reason? The religiously tinged but ultimately secular cause of Palestinian liberation from Israeli Zionist occupation.

The Palestinian Diaspora meme, is a bit more complicated to characterize as it involves secular and religious elements. Most Palestinians are Muslim, the youngest of the three monotheistic religions, and follow the teachings of the prophet Mohammed as delineated in the Koran. Islam, in response to the existentialist challenge, emphasizes the purpose of human life as the strictly regulated worship of a higher power, Allah.

Although there is a sense of fomenting instinctual drives such as group survival, the biological nature of man is more subjugated with the Islamic meme. Behavior is rigidly dictated by the capacity of man to invent, more so than in Judaism and Christianity. The extreme conclusion of this meme, though by no means its essence, is the cult of martyrdom something rarely seen in less "advanced" societies (sun or moon worshippers for example) or in the natural world (though, of course, salmon do swim to their death just to procreate).

The Islamic meme has a comparable survival advantage to that in Judaism and Christianity- the alleviation of existentialist angst. Islam's ultimate advantage may be that a rigid behavior code could help preserve self-identity (including sexual identity) and group cohesiveness in a world irreversibly globalized by the power of human free will.

Palestinians, it must be added, are also driven by tribal desires of home territory which in many respects is similar to Zionist tribal desires. The divergent point is that Palestinians are driven by secular reasons (lawful ownership of land under the jurisdiction of man's laws) versus religious beliefs (the Jewish Promised Land).

As we have seen, the meme of religion is an adaptation that has been used by societies since the beginning of the emergence of Homo Sapiens to alleviate the problem of existentialist angst. Religion survived in its many forms because it helped to ensure the survival of the group by giving identity to the individual. The question is: In a globalized world, are these cultural adaptations, which mold our identity, still advantageous to the survival of the individual, of the group and, ultimately, of the species- Homo sapien?

Personally, I believe yes, but with some modifications to reflect 21st century realities. The most important cultural change we can make is to first redefine the "group" to be not Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, etc., but mankind (Pretend we are being attacked by Martians).

Second, we must tolerate a healthy diversity of memes or cultures. Just as gene diversity is important for the survival of say a pond dwelling fish, so is meme diversity. In addition, our species' unique quandary of "boredom" almost mandates cultural diversity for our survival.

Third, we must reacquaint ourselves with the natural world or mother earth. By understanding that the environment is quite literally our life support system, we will be more apt to conserve it.

Fourth, we must begin to deconstruct the harmful memes which have taken us away and blinded us from our essence. Even religion, which as we have seen are only accidental cultural adaptations albeit beneficial, must be seen as just memes at least by our wise leaders.

Unlike religion, the memes of capitalism, industrialization and corporate globalization are not beneficial to human. They put corporate health- the survival of the likes of McDonald's, Nike, the oil industry- over human well being. We must invoke the mantra that Humans were meant to survive, not memes.

Lastly, we must reemphasize the importance of family (the root of all altruism) while tolerating alternate life styles (human free will requires the basic human rights of freedom of expression), promote benign nationalism (the need for identity will not go away) and return to a trajectory of sustainable and equitable growth.