The World is in a constant state of flux, more so now than ever, and with the

future of the world so undetermined there is only one that has been confirmed multiple

times in the recent human era, that the world is dying with us upon it. In “Apocalypse

Now” by Edward O. Wilson speaks about how the world is dying and what we can do

in order to try and save it through the lens of a letter between him and an imagined

Southern Baptist pastor. Wilson’s primary argument within the piece speaks not of the

specifics of how to cut down on damaging impacts to the world, but rather how

Religion and Science need to work together to gather the largest crowd possible in order

to move forward in solving the issue by forcing politicians to answer. The argument is

very compelling because of the way Wilson so deeply understands not only the

religious community due to his own experience, but the ways they may think first in

order to work with them and their faith to join forces, along with the acknowledgment

that it’s the political power they represent in the people at large together that would

matter, rather than simply saying platitudes about how the common people can cut

things out, which is never where the problem was, it was always on a commercial scale

that common people have no way of dealing with.

Wilson’s letter uses very specific language in order to get the idea imprinted

within the reader’s mind, such as by directing the reader always back to the fact that it’s

supposed to be a correspondence between him and a pastor and not just an academic

think piece. His understanding that academic papers fuel only the academic community

and not others is very important, along with his usage of words like “living nature” and

“Creation” to signify the world itself, and it shows an impressive understanding of

empathy and sympathy towards the spiritual readers who may be reading in specific,

he makes a great effort to do so in justifying how science and religion often can and do

clash, but for some greater things they don’t have to, and how science is not born from

the hatred of religion, but sometimes the great love of it. This compelling, friendly tone

makes the idea seem very plausible, if not the most sensible thing in existence for

anyone who cares about our future as humans, and the future of all known life. With all

of these factors combined, Wilson’s letter is an impressive, well flowing conversation

that convinces the reader, be they scientific or spiritually inclined, that that union of

both sides should be obvious for the safety of the nature we live in, be it born from

chance and evolved or be it God’s own creation, either way it needs to be actively saved

by those in power, and the best way to force them to move is to unite the largest

sections of the population to agreeing that things need be done now, before it’s too late.