Mosaic People and the Mind Virus

There was a report in Nature (Dual Identities, Helen Pearson, 417, 10 - 11, 02 May 2002) about mosaic people. When a fertilized egg splits in two one gets identical twins. Sometimes the woman produces two eggs at once and both get fertilized to produce fraternal twins. Alternatively, these embryos can fuse to become a single person. There are examples of people who have two skin tones, that make interesting, beautiful patterns on their backs.

So here is the question for religious believers. Although the concept is not defined, suppose there are "souls" in people. Supposedly souls are put (?) into the embryo at conception. All the uproar about abortion would not make sense if this were not true, as I don't see them defending eggs and sperm, which are "wasted" all the time. So the two fraternal twins must have had souls. Then the embryos fused. What happened to the souls? There are only a few possible solutions:

• Neither embryo had a soul until fusion or only one embryo ever had a soul. In this case it is not always murder to abort. (How does one know whether an embryo has a soul?)
• Both embryos had souls. The souls fused. Funny, I never heard that this is possible. If they can fuse before birth, maybe I could fuse with you? What would prevent further fusions? It probably happens with triple embryos. This would be a new form of marriage. (Note: would the ultimate fusion be "god"? If so, then are we separate from god? How could that be if god includes everything?)
• At fusion one of the souls was lost. Which one? What happens to that lost soul? (Does all of the DNA survive? Perhaps not if the cells fuse early enough to form a single nucleus.)
• There are no souls.

Probably none of these are acceptable alternatives to a religious person!

I sent this example to a very religious friend. After some consideration, they responded that it was not appropriate to question god. Thereby avoiding the question! I found that dishonest, which is a surprising because this person is one of the most moral honest people I know. It must be that they have not thought the issues through carefully or are actually dishonest. :-(

For me this has become a classic example of one of the things this person had been taught in their religion that keeps them trapped in it. In translation, that was a classic example of how the religious mind-virus (meme) keeps people in its grip. In other words, it says to the infected person "don't question me". It's like a little blob that has attached itself to the back of your neck and inserted fungal-like fingers into your brain. If you feel back there for it, it makes you ill. Like the recent experiments with mice, it controls your every move. If you try to cut it off, it causes you great pain. It saps your energy and tries to replicate into other people. If someone else points out that you are infected, it makes you angry and you want to kill that person, while simultaneously making you feel that it is ok to violate 'love thy neighbor'. Horrors!

• In non-existant being we trust
• Discussion about the unpardonable sin trap

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