Popular culture bombards us with examples of animals being humanized for all sorts of purposes, ranging from education to entertainment to satire to propaganda. Walt Disney, for example, made us forget that Mickey is a mouse, and Donald a duck. George Orwell laid a cover of human societal ills over a population of livestock.

Personally, I think it is possible to build a society that is moral on a nonreligious basis, but the jury is still out on that.

Female bonobos form a strong sisterhood. They rule through female solidarity.

Male chimpanzees have an extraordinarily strong drive for dominance. They're constantly jockeying for position.

As far as the environment is concerned, I am becoming pessimistic because I do not see anybody stepping up and taking the long view approach. It seems like we're stuck in a tragedy of the commons where everyone is trying to contribute as little as possible to get out of this situation.

The evolutionary struggle for survival is really a self-serving series of blows and stabs, and yet it can lead to extremely social animals like dolphins, wolves or, for that matter, primates.

I'm personally a nonbeliever, so I'm struggling with if we really need religion.