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

It's the technique, I think, of writing a novel that is difficult for a nonfiction writer.

We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It's about conflicts between creation stories.

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.

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 real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall.

The cost of scientific advance is the humbling recognition that reality was not constructed to be easily grasped by the human mind. This is the cardinal tenet of scientific understanding. Our species and its ways of thinking are a product of evolution, not the purpose of evolution.