With the exception of Buddhism, you can only believe in one religion at a time; for example, you cannot simultaneously be both a Christian and a Moslem. Some political ideas are similar: you cannot say that Soviet communism and liberal capitalism are both the best way to organize an economy to generate wealth. You must pick one or the other.
As statements of truth, Christianity and Islam are one pair. Soviet communism and liberal capitalism are another. The pairs are rivals.
Soviet communism and liberal capitalism are not the only alternatives. But if you reject one or other, you must choose an alternative to that pair. For example, you could favor an unregulated, `Wild West' capitalism that contrasts with both Soviet communism and liberal capitalism; but you cannot combine it with either liberal capitalism or Soviet communism.
Such pairs (or triplets) are similar to a car, a shirt, or a loaf of bread. Each of the latter can by used by only one entity at a time. If I take your car from you, you cannot use it. If I eat your bread, you cannot also eat it. Your consumption rivals mine.
Put another way, as statements of truth, the pairs are rivalrous.
But as learnable ideas, the pairs are non-rivalrous. You can learn about Christianity without giving up your knowledge of Islam, and vice-versa.
The non-rivalrous nature of the ideas means they can be duplicated inexpensively although the ideas' initial cost may be high.
Steven Den Beste introduced me to the notion of additive and non-additive ideas. In addition, he additively combined that notion with another: that differing characteristics may favor rapid reduplication in periods of non-competitive growth but kill in periods of competitive saturation. One possibility is that the computer desktop system that is most popular currently, Microsoft Windows, will die because its faults will outweigh its virtues.
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