The toxic mix of religion and tribalism has become so dangerous as to justify taking seriously the alternative view, that humanism based on science is the effective antidote, the light and the way at last placed before us. E. O. Wilson More Quotes by E. O. Wilson More Quotes From E. O. Wilson The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and works like a bookkeeper E. O. Wilson scientist poet thinking Science and technology are what we can do; morality is what we agree we should or should not do. E. O. Wilson morality technology should When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all. E. O. Wilson ants tree bird Each of these [bacterial] species are masterpieces of evolution. Each has persisted for thousands to millions of years. Each is exquisitely adapted to the environment in which it lives, interlocked with other species to form ecosystems upon which our own lives depend in ways we have not begun even to imagine. E. O. Wilson motivation inspiration years True character arises from a deeper well than religion. E. O. Wilson atheism arise character I tend to believe that religious dogma is a consequence of evolution. E. O. Wilson dogma religious believe We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It's about conflicts between creation stories. E. O. Wilson differences religious people Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition. E. O. Wilson tests science religion People would rather believe than know. E. O. Wilson environmental believe people While ants exist in just the right numbers for the rest of the living world, humans have become too numerous. If we were to vanish today, the land environment would return to the fertile balance that existed before the human population explosion. Only a dozen or so species, among which are the crab louse and a mite that lives in the oil glands of our foreheads, depend on us entirely. But if ants were to disappear, tens of thousands of other plants and animal species would perish also, simplifying and weakening land ecosystems almost everywhere. E. O. Wilson ecosystems land animal The historical circumstance of interest is that the tropical rain forests have persisted over broad parts of the continents since their origins as stronghold of the flowering plants 150 million years ago. E. O. Wilson historical rain years The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us. E. O. Wilson diversity loss years We should not knowingly allow any species or race to go extinct. And let us go beyond mere salvage to begin the restoration of natural environments, in order to enlarge wild populations and stanch the hemorrhaging of biological wealth. There can be no purpose more enspiriting than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us. E. O. Wilson diversity race order If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months. E. O. Wilson rest-of-life land humanity [P]rescientific people... could never guess the nature of physical reality beyond the tiny sphere attainable by unaided common sense. Nothing else ever worked, no exercise from myth, revelation, art, trance, or any other conceivable means; and notwithstanding the emotional satisfaction it gives, mysticism, the strongest prescientific probe in the unknown, has yielded zero. E. O. Wilson zero mean art If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is the endeavor alone, whether successful or not, provided the effort is honorable and failure memorable. E. O. Wilson failure successful memorable Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society. If one colony member devotes its life to service over marriage, the individual is of benefit to the society, even though it does not have personal offspring. A soldier going into battle will benefit his country, but he runs a higher risk of death than one who does not. An altruist benefits the group, but a layabout or coward who saves his own energy and reduces his bodily risk passes the resulting social cost to others. E. O. Wilson soldier running country I think history has shown that the worst way to [try to] bring people over and actually change public opinion is by insult and applied degradation of them. E. O. Wilson trying people thinking Because the living environment is what really sustains us. E. O. Wilson environment But I feel music has a very important role in ritual activity, and that being able to join in musical activity, along with dancing, could have been necessary at a very early stage of human culture. E. O. Wilson musical dancing important
