The theory I'm putting forward here is that storytelling is a genetic characteristic in the sense that early human hunters who were able to organize events into stories were more successful than hunters who weren'tโand this success translated directly into reproductive success. In other words, hunters who were storytellers tended to be better represented in the gene pool than hunters who weren't, which (incidentally) accounts for the fact that storytelling isn't just found here and there among human cultures, it's found universally.
Daniel QuinnIf the world was made for us, then it BELONGS to us and we can do what we damn well please with it.
Daniel Quinn[T]he price you've paid is not the price of becoming human. It's not even the price of having the things you just mentioned. It's the price of enacting a story that casts mankind as the enemy of the world.
Daniel QuinnAnimism is not a belief system, but a worldview: The world is a sacred place and we are part of it. The factuality of this statement is not the issue. To say that the world is a sacred place is to make a statement about values, not facts. Itโs a statement about what you mean by โsacred,โ just as โMoney canโt buy happinessโ is a statement about what you mean by โhappiness.โ To put it all very simply, animism isnโt a belief system, itโs a value system.
Daniel Quinn