Paul Will
Paul Will
devout religion seems societies united
If you look within the United States, religion seems to make you a better person. Yet atheist societies do very well - better, in many ways, than devout ones.
aspects docile drawn enhance human landscapes natural nature payoff presence selection shaped toward warm
Natural selection shaped the human brain to be drawn toward aspects of nature that enhance our survival and reproduction, like verdant landscapes and docile creatures. There is no payoff to getting the warm fuzzies in the presence of rats, snakes, mosquitoes, cockroaches, herpes simplex and the rabies virus.
cooperation human parties periods taken
Periods of cooperation between political parties shouldn't be taken for granted; they are a stunning human achievement.
attitudes change cultural drift either entirely feelings gut history human moral randomly result skirt stable systematic time
If our moral attitudes are entirely the result of nonrational factors, such as gut feelings and the absorption of cultural norms, they should either be stable or randomly drift over time, like skirt lengths or the widths of ties. They shouldn't show systematic change over human history. But they do.
arises conscious modern physical purely science self tells
Modern science tells us that the conscious self arises from a purely physical brain. We do not have immaterial souls.
capacity evidence evil god great proof wondrous
If our wondrous kindness is evidence for God, is our capacity for great evil proof of the Devil?
fountain mostly written
I've always written by hand. Mostly with a fountain pen, but sometimes with a pencil - especially for corrections.
future hoping living
I'm living in the present, thinking about the past, hoping for the future.
future global health moved necessary people public stop thinks
What the American public thinks is very important to the future of global health. Many people are moved by the idea that there is unnecessary suffering in the world, and we could do a lot to stop it. We have the technologies necessary to stop most of the suffering.
american-poet ditch finds hills leaves maybe poet
But maybe it's up in the hills under the leaves or in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it's never found. But what you find, whatever you find, is always only part of the missing, and writing is the way the poet finds out what it is he found.
emotional filmmaker logical
Film is an emotional medium; it's not a logical medium. It's not an intellectual medium, so every decision you make as a filmmaker and an actor has to be emotional in some way, even in the rejection of logic.
antsy people type
I'm such an antsy type of person. I can't write in a room without other people around. I write in coffee shops.
near normal
In Scientology, in the Ethics Conditions, as you go down from Normal through Doubt, then you get to Enemy, and, finally, near the bottom, there is Treason.
guiding success
My one guiding rule for success in the film world would be, be careful of your friends.