We discuss the biggest questions: "what's real?", "who matters?" and "how to make a better world?" with scientists, celebrities, activists, writers and philosophers. The Sentientism worldview is "evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings." It's a simple, yet radical, philosophy that's grounded in reality (naturalistic epistemology) and has compassion for all sentient beings (mostly human and non-human animals). Naturalism & sentiocentrism combined.
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Cat (@CatBeschVN) founded and leads Vietnam Animal Aid & Rescue. She is also a writer & activist addressing many non-human animal issues.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”
Sentientism is “evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
We discuss:
0:00 Welcome
1:10 Cat’s Intro
– Founding Vietnam Animal Aid & Rescue
– Growing up in Virginia, USA
– Studying International Relations in Washington DC
– A political/military family
3:10 What’s Real?
– Growing up as a liberal Lutheran with very religious parents
– The church as social fabric
– Figuring out that “I just don’t really believe in any of that crap”
– High school & Baptist society in Alabama
– The church seeing all sex as shameful… “holding virginity in such high esteem”
– Feminism & Islam. “Headscarves & Hymens” by Mona Eltahawy.
– “The way the institutions look at sex & sexuality just makes you want to put your fist through a wall”
– “A whole bunch of girls that think they’re going to hell”
– That was the turning point. Everything started to crumble
– Not picking at the church too hard as it was the social fabric. “Life is hard enough at 16.” I left it silently on my own
– The hypocrisy of religious compassion & judgementalism
– Atheists & agnostics are not immoral people
– “I attended church… I took communion… my sins are flushed… now I can go back to being a dickhead”
– Religious compassion is often conditional & constrained
– The immorality of even “moderate” religious worldviews (e.g. hell, sexism, homophobia)
– “Women are not emotionally stable enough to be leaders in the Catholic church”!
– “I found it oppressive.” Leaving the church was a moment of liberation
– Travelling & living in many religious cultures
– Starting the “Let’s not be an asshole” religion
– Being wrong. “I used to hate vegans”, now I’m “on the side of all sentient beings”
– Everybody has a chance to change
– “I just don’t know” as a strong naturalistic stance
25:09 What (& Who) Matters?
– An early empathy for animals “they were my best friends”, but living in an environment where killing sentient beings was normal
– I never met a vegan in the horse riding world
– “I love what you do for me” isn’t love
– Being angry at our previous selves for not seeing
– Thinking all vegans must be “dirty hippies”
– Meeting first vegans hosting couch-surfers in Mongolia
– Being challenged “You love animals but who are you eating?”
…and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube.
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our “I’m a Sentientist” wall via this simple form.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook.
Thanks for the post-prod Graham.
Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell & petertatchell.net) has been an activist for human rights, democracy, LGBT+ freedom and global justice since 1967. Watch the Netflix documentary about his life, “Hating Peter Tatchell”. He directs the Peter Tatchell foundation (petertatchellfoundation.org). In Sentientist Conversations …continue
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Jack Waverley is a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Manchester. He uses marketing and consumer research to protect and promote the interests of all animals, including humans. Jack teaches on a range of BSc and MSc courses …continue
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