Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds... is not productive. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
For me, the peculiar qualities of faith are a logical outcome of this level of biological organization. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
All three of the Abrahamic religions were born and nurtured in arid, disturbed environments. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
I tend to believe that religious dogma is a consequence of evolution. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
The human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
No statistical proofs exist that prayer reduces illness and mortality, except perhaps through a psychogenic enhancement of the immune system; if it… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
I see no way out of the problems that organized religion and tribalism create other than humans just becoming more honest and… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
The brain and its satellite glands have now been probed to the point where no particular site remains that can reasonably be… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we're hard-wired to form tribalistic religions. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
People need a sacred narrative. They must have a sense of larger purpose, in one form or another, however intellectualized. They will… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
Religious beliefs evolved by group-selection, tribe competing against tribe, and the illogic of religions is not a weakness but their essential strength. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
[W]hen the martyr's righteous forebrain is exploded by the executioner's bullet and his mind disintegrates, what then? Can we safely assume that… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
The most dangerous of devotions, in my opinion, is the one endemic to Christianity: I was not born to be of this… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
[T]he true natural sciences lock together in theory and evidence to form the ineradicable technical base of modern civilization. The pseudosciences satisfy… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
By any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified. Today the greatest divide within humanity… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
The essence of humanity's spiritual dilemma is that we evolved genetically to accept one truth and discovered another. Is there a way… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
[P]rescientific people... could never guess the nature of physical reality beyond the tiny sphere attainable by unaided common sense. Nothing else ever… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
If religion and science could be united on the common ground of biological conservation, the problem would be soon solved. If there… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
The biological evolutionary perception of life and of human qualities is radically different from that of traditional religion, whether it's Southern Baptist… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
The green prehuman earth is the mystery we were chosen to solve, a guide to the birthplace of our spirit, but it… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
I thought perhaps it should be recognized that religious people, including fundamentalists, are quite intelligent, many of them are highly educated, and… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It stands by itself and excites admiration in others. It is not obedience… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
The toxic mix of religion and tribalism has become so dangerous as to justify taking seriously the alternative view, that humanism based… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
I would say that for the sake of human progress, the best thing we could possibly do would be to diminish, to… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
In fact, nothing in science as a whole has been more firmly established by interwoven factual information, or more illuminating than the… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share Image
Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
It's always been a dream of mine, of exploring the living world, of classifying all the species and finding out what makes up the… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
The commitment must be much deeper - to let no species knowingly die; to take all reasonable action to protect every species and race… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
Science is not marginal. Like art, it is a universal possession of humanity, and scientific knowledge has become a vital part of our species'… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
The living environment is the biosphere, the thin layer around the world of living organisms. We're part of that. Our existence is dependent on… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
The biological evolutionary perception of life and of human qualities is radically different from that of traditional religion, whether it's Southern Baptist or Islam… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
In many environments, take away the ants and there would be partial collapses in many of the land ecosystems. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
The extinctions ongoing worldwide promise to be at least as great as the mass extinction that occurred at the end of the age of… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
Most people are surprised when they hear my somber figures: we know of 2 million species of plants, animals and microorganisms, and we can… — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
The variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined. — E. O. Wilson Copy Share
![“[W]hen the martyr's righteous forebrain is exploded by the executioner's bullet and his mind disintegrates, what then? Can we safely assume that all those millions of neural circuits will be reconstituted in an immaterial state, so the conscious mind carries on?” quote by E. O. Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/af7/e-o-wilson-1348_assuming_w-hen-the-martyr-s-righteous-forebrain-i_1069533.png)
![“[T]he true natural sciences lock together in theory and evidence to form the ineradicable technical base of modern civilization. The pseudosciences satisfy personal psychological needs... but lack the ideas or the means to contribute to the technical base.” quote by E. O. Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/db8/e-o-wilson-1348_civilization_t-he-true-natural-sciences-lock-together_2419733.png)
![“[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…” quote by E. O. Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/0d0/e-o-wilson-1348_art_p-rescientific-people-could-never-guess_717283.jpg)
