The way to understand how different species evolved is to think about the niches that they fill in an ecosystem - basically, how they make a living.

If anything, Powerpoint, if used well, would ideally reflect the way we think.

You could think of an ecosystem as a bunch of antagonistic arms races, almost: Everything that an animal depends upon for food is the body part of some other animal or plant who would just as soon keep that body part for itself.

I think students should know something about religion as a historical phenomenon, in the same way that they should know something about socialism and humanism and the other great ideas that have shaped political philosophies and therefore the course of human events.

Why are empirical questions about how the mind works so weighted down with political and moral and emotional baggage?

The actual organization of behavior goes on the level of the individual nerve cells and their connections, and we have a hundred billion nerve cells, probably a hundred trillion connections. It's just mind-boggling to think of all the different ways in which they're arranged in a baby's head.