So important are insects and other land-dwelling arthropods that if all were to disappear, humanity probably could not last more than a few months.

Somewhere close I knew spear-nosed bats flew through the tree crowns in search of fruit, palm vipers coiled in ambush in the roots of orchids, jaguars walked the river's edge; around them eight hundred species of trees stood, more than are native to all of North America; and a thousand species of butterflies, 6 percent of the entire world fauna, waited for the dawn.

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.

The price of these failures has been a loss of moral consensus, a greater sense of helplessness about the human condition. ... The intellectual solution to the first dilemma can be achieved by a deeper and more courageous examination of human nature that combines the findings of biology with those of the social sciences.

To the extent that philosophical positions both confuse us and close doors to further inquiry, they are likely to be wrong.

I want us to save the creation-not just care about it, but to save it.

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