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" 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. "

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" The human juggernaut is permanently eroding Earth's ancient biosphere. "

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

" The two major challenges for the 21st century are to improve the economic situation of the majority and save as much of the planet as we can. "

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

" The essence of humanity's spiritual dilemma is that we evolved genetically to accept one truth and discovered another. Is there a way to erase the dilemma, to resolve the contradictions between the transcendentalist and the empiricist world views? "

" Even as empiricism is winning the mind, transcendentalism continues to win the heart. "

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

" Religious beliefs evolved by group-selection, tribe competing against tribe, and the illogic of religions is not a weakness but their essential strength. "

" 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. "

" An individual ant, even though it has a brain about a millionth of a size of a human being's, can learn a maze; the kind we use is a simple rat maze in a laboratory. They can learn it about one-half as fast as a rat. "

" We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity. "

" We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely. "

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

" But I feel music has a very important role in ritual activity, and that being able to join in musical activity, along with dancing, could have been necessary at a very early stage of human culture. "

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

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

" One thing I did was grow up as an ardent naturalist. I never grew out of my bug period. "

" For me, the peculiar qualities of faith are a logical outcome of this level of biological organization. "

" We don't need to clear the 4 to 6 percent of the Earth's surface remaining in tropical rain forests, with most of the animal and plant species living there. "

" Ants are the dominant insects of the world, and they've had a great impact on habitats almost all over the land surface of the world for more than 50-million years. "

" The work on ants has profoundly affected the way I think about humans. "

" What's been gratifying is to live long enough to see molecular biology and evolutionary biology growing toward each other and uniting in research efforts. "

" America in particular imposes an horrendous burden on the world. We have this wonderful standard of living but it comes at enormous cost. "

" People respect nonfiction but they read novels. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" It's obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life - for 8 billion or more people - without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt. "

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

" 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. "