I recall reading an excerpt from the "Selfish Gene" about his hypothesis of ideas or "meme" as being a virus of the mind. From Dawkins' view, DNA is nothing more than information storage, and the information "desires" replication; he extrapolated a biological phenomenon unto the world at large. Some of his opinions seem deserving of further examination.

There is a statistical information regarding schizophrenia that indicates a disease prevalence of 1% in any given population, at any given time. Of course the definition of schizophrenia changes with shifting hypothetical framework of "professionals," but "madness" seem to be consistent trait within the human society.

In the mysticism ridden past, the ones we deem "mad" would have been the shamans, priests, and oracles to whom dukes, kings, and emperors would kneel to receive blessings and predictions. In our world of materialism, the former gods have become marginalized and institutionalized. Nevertheless, the human creature has a psychological, and maybe even genetic, need to commune with the divine. The phenomenon of televangelists seem to be an attempt by clever frauds to tap into this deep thrumming of our common pulse.