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" I see no way out of the problems that organized religion and tribalism create other than humans just becoming more honest and fully aware of themselves. "

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" I've found that good dialogue tells you not only what people are saying or how they're communicating but it tells you a great deal - by dialect and tone, content and circumstance - about the quality of the character. "

" I'm very much a Christian in ideals and ethics, especially in terms of belief in fairness, a deep set obligation to others, and the virtues of charity, tolerance and generosity that we associate with traditional Christian teaching. "

" In addition I wanted to write a Southern novel, because I'm a Southerner. "

" The world depends on fungi, because they are major players in the cycling of materials and energy around the world. "

" It's always been a dream of mine, of exploring the living world, of classifying all the species and finding out what makes up the biosphere. "

" Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society. "

" I grew up as a Southern Baptist with strict adherence to the Bible, which I read as a youngster. "

" In my heart, I'm an Alabaman who went up north to work. "

" I had in mind a message, although I hope it doesn't intrude too badly, persuading Americans, and especially Southerners, of the critical importance of land and our vanishing natural environment and wildlife. "

" Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false. "

" The historical circumstance of interest is that the tropical rain forests have persisted over broad parts of the continents since their origins as stronghold of the flowering plants 150 million years ago. "

" The biological evolutionary perception of life and of human qualities is radically different from that of traditional religion, whether it's Southern Baptist or Islam or any religion that believes in a supernatural supervalance over humanity. "

" Theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God? "

" It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are. "

" There doesn't seem to be any other way of creating the next green revolution without GMOs. "

" Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal. "

" But once the ants and termites jumped the high barrier that prevents the vast variety of evolving animal groups from becoming fully social, they dominated the world. "

" I had reached a point in my career in which I was ready to try something new in my writing, and the idea of a novel has always been in the back of my mind. "

" Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we're hard-wired to form tribalistic religions. "

" Secular humanists can sit around and talk about their love of humanity, but it doesn't stack up against a two-millennium-old funeral high mass. "

" Ants make up two-thirds of the biomass of all the insects. There are millions of species of organisms and we know almost nothing about them. "

" By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified. "

" Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake. "

" If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth. "

" All three of the Abrahamic religions were born and nurtured in arid, disturbed environments. "

" It's the technique, I think, of writing a novel that is difficult for a nonfiction writer. "

" There is no better high than discovery. "

" Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups of selfish individuals. "

" True character arises from a deeper well than religion. "

" Well, let me tell you, ants are the dominant insects. They make up as much as a quarter of the biomass of all insects in the world. They are the principal predators. They're the cemetery workers. "