Meme

Meme is a term used to describe the spread and modification of ideas in a selection and reproduction context. They are sometimes compared to viruses as an analogy, in that ideas pass to new people from those who already have that idea ("transmission"), and that they will also change over time to become more effective at catching people's attention and remaining in their mind. This is because someone who contacts the idea but doesn't like it is unlikely to spread the idea to others, so the easily transmitted ideas spread further.

That is, there are two main ways ideas can spread - by being transmitted easily, or by remaining in someone's mind for a long time (having a low transmission rate but many opportunities for that transmission to occur). The term has also been applied to the spread of viral fads on the Internet such as certain YouTube videos, because the fads spread rapidly and are only introduced to new people through those who have already contacted it. These are in the category of being transmitted easily, and since they have low staying power, they rarely remain popular for more than a few months each.

Atheism and secularism memes

On a worldwide basis, atheism is not a very robust meme and global atheism is shrinking, although the concept of a meme was invented by atheist Richard Dawkins in his book, "The Selfish Gene." In the Western World due to immigration, the higher birth rates of religious people and other factors, the secularism and atheism memes are expected to decline. Eric Kaufman writes: "Committed religious populations are growing in the West, and will reverse the march of secularism before 2050."