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.
E. O. WILSONScience and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds… is not productive.
More E. O. Wilson Quotes
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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.
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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.
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Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.
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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.
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If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.
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Religious beliefs evolved by group-selection, tribe competing against tribe, and the illogic of religions is not a weakness but their essential strength.
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This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.
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Because the living environment is what really sustains us.
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We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It’s about conflicts between creation stories.
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Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we’re hard-wired to form tribalistic religions.
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If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.
E. O. WILSON