"Viruses of the Mind" (1993) is a controversial essay by Richard Dawkins using memetics, epidemiology, and an analogy with biological and computer viruses to analyse the propagation of religious beliefs. In the essay, Dawkins defines the "symptoms" of being infected by the "virus of religion", providing examples for most of them, and tries to define a connection between the elements of religion and its survival value (invoking Zahavi's handicap principle of sexual selection, applied to believers of a religion).

The second part of Dawkins' television programme The Root of All Evil? explored similar ideas and took the same name.

The essay is included in the book A Devil's Chaplain.

External links

• The essay