Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound but because it is wrong.

Theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God?

Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society.

It's always been a great survival value for people to believe they belong to a superior tribe. That's just in human relationships.

Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds... is not productive.

All three of the Abrahamic religions were born and nurtured in arid, disturbed environments.

Ants make up two-thirds of the biomass of all the insects. There are millions of species of organisms and we know almost nothing about them.

I doubt that most people with short-term thinking love the natural world enough to save it.

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

It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are.

There is no better high than discovery.

America in particular imposes an horrendous burden on the world. We have this wonderful standard of living but it comes at enormous cost.

Ants are the leading removers of dead creatures on the land. And the rest of life is substantially dependent upon them.

Because the living environment is what really sustains us.

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

I grew up as a Southern Baptist with strict adherence to the Bible, which I read as a youngster.

I was a senior in high school when I decided I wanted to work on ants as a career. I just fell in love with them, and have never regretted it.

Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake.

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.

In addition I wanted to write a Southern novel, because I'm a Southerner.