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.
— E. O. Wilson
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.
Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake.
If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months.
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.
To the extent that philosophical positions both confuse us and close doors to further inquiry, they are likely to be wrong.
Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.
Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.
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?
The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.
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.
There is no better high than discovery.
Political ideology can corrupt the mind, and science.
Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.
If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.
We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It's about conflicts between creation stories.
Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds... is not productive.
The variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined.
There doesn't seem to be any other way of creating the next green revolution without GMOs.
America in particular imposes an horrendous burden on the world. We have this wonderful standard of living but it comes at enormous cost.
People need a sacred narrative. They must have a sense of larger purpose, in one form or another, however intellectualized. They will find a way to keep ancestral spirits alive.
A very Faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behavior as the unavoidable price of population and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic.
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?
If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is the endeavor alone, whether successful or not, provided the effort is honorable and failure memorable.
Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled my energies and drove me in new directions.
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.
If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.
Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.
When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.
Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound but because it is wrong.
Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society.
Every kid has a bug period... I never grew out of mine.
The human juggernaut is permanently eroding Earth's ancient biosphere.
The education of women is the best way to save the environment.
By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified.
Even as empiricism is winning the mind, transcendentalism continues to win the heart.
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.
Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.
Perhaps the time has come to cease calling it the 'environmentalist' view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view.
True character arises from a deeper well than religion.
You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.
The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology.
We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.
It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are.
