Religions, scams, and hoaxes succeed because they exploit powerful psychological processes. These processes are the very ones that have enabled humans to survive and create art and technology, but also trasform Homo Sapiens into Homo Suckers!  http://venitism.blogspot.com Joe Nickell points out the Mandylion, according to the myth, was produced for King Abgar of Edessa after he sent a messenger, Ananias, with a letter to Jesus requesting a cure for the king's leprosy. If Jesus was unable to come, Ananias was instructed, he was to bring the holy man's portrait instead. But as Ananias attempted to paint a picture Jesus himself intervened, washing his face in water and inexplicably imprinting his visage on a towel — hence the name Mandylion, a unique word of Byzantine Greek coinage describing a holy facecloth. Meme is a cultural invention that passes from one mind to another and thrives, or declines, like a gene. Memetics explores the concepts and transmission of memes in a similar fashion to genetics. A meme's success is due to its contribution to the effectiveness of its host. Memeplex, like the genetic code, is a set of ideas that reinforce each other. Religion is a memeplex. Hey! I wish to deliver the keynote speech at your conference. My speeches leave the audience thinking something new or resolved to act, stir the emotions as well as appealing to reason, and show a sense of occasion. I get away with elevated language because my liberty cause is a noble one. I practice a colorful rhetoric enriched with alliterations, metaphors, heightened imagery, emotional effect, and sound bites. Basil Venitis,  venitis@gmail.com Nickell notes that since the prototypical image for the later Mandylions first appeared in Constantinople in the tenth century, many copies have been made. In one known seventeenth-century instance, no fewer than six exact facsimiles were carefully made. Such replicas could later be mistaken for or misrepresented as the original, as happened, for example, with one that was specially made and sent to plague-ridden Venice in the 1470s. This is what occurred in the case of the two existing Mandylions. The Genoese image, with its older provenance and two-stage creation, appears to be the earliest. Its original image was certainly an artist's copy, since it was painted not on cloth but directly on the wood panel. Because religions claim divine favor for themselves, over and against other groups, this sense of righteousness leads to violence because conflicting claims to superiority, based on unverifiable appeals to God, cannot be adjudicated objectively. Religions do tremendous harm to society by using violence to promote their goals, in ways that are endorsed and exploited by their leaders. Abrahamic Religions are inherently violent because of an exclusivism that inevitably fosters violence against those that are considered outsiders. Abrahamic legacy is actually genocidal in nature. Hail! A sensitive issue cannot be fully explained in a post, but only in a speech, in that magic eyeball to eyeball contact, baring my soul, and declaring truths that cause shock and awe. That's why I look forward to the invitation of your organization to speak at your conference. Basil Venitis,  venitis@gmail.com Vatican experts acknowledge the evidence suggesting that their Mandylion is a later replica of the one now in Genoa; t