"If someone could actually prove scientifically that there is such a thing as a supernatural force, it would be one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science. So the notion that somehow scientists are resisting it is ludicrous," biologist E.O. Wilson, who recently released his latest book, The Superorganism, tells Esquire magazine. "The intelligent-design folks say, 'You haven't explained everything.' What they don't appreciate is that that's what biologists do for a living. And, one by one, the things that can't be explained are explained."
Religion, Wilson adds, is a "manifestation of deep emotion that will [come] out, one way or the other. Either in an atheistic political ideology or an excessive fierceness in being secular. Or the Red Sox. In other words, we constantly seek a tribe that we feel is innately superior and has the great truths, and we want to identify with them. We shouldn't deny that."
Yet, he says, we "have to get an entirely new mentality. Getting set for a long haul into the future. In which we grow. Not in numbers—we'll probably shrink in numbers—but we grow. In our understanding, in our happiness, in our harmony. Because we realize that there's no other way to survive as a species."