Nature first, then theory. Or, better, Nature and theory closely intertwined while you throw all your intellectual capital at the subject. Love the organisms for themselves first, then strain for general explanations, and, with good fortune, discoveries will follow. If they don't, the love and the pleasure will have been enough.

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

The education of women is the best way to save the environment.

We've got paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technologies.

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

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

Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.