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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Rachel is a multi-award winning writer, podcast host & media consultant. Her memoir, “Open – An Uncensored Memoir Of Love, Liberation, And Non-Monogomy” was published in 2022. She is on the advisory board for Sentient Media & the board of directors of Our Hen House. Rachel does nonprofit media consulting, especially for vegan organizations & brands.
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:
00:00 Welcome
01:34 Rachel’s Intro
– Journalism, writing memoir “Open”, normalising veganism & liberation
06:12 What’s Real?
– Growing up culturally Jewish. Parents wanted to leave behind the stricter ordinances (e.g. gender)
– Jewish school (daily prayers, dress codes) “I was not having it”
– Moving to a more liberal Jewish school
– “Tikkun olam”: helping the world as an ethos. What you do in this life – not an afterlife. Giving back
– Immigration lawyer dad working w/Catholic charities
– Trip to Israel w/a religious group. “I was very disillusioned… they didn’t talk about Palestinian people… didn’t address the conflict at all”
– Stark contrast w/parents’ sense of Jews as: “we’re liberals, we’ve suffered… so we care about other social minorities & discrimination”
– “The oppressed becoming the oppressors”
– Proud to be culturally Jewish but “I identify less & less w/religious aspects… the more I examine them the more there’s speciesism or sexism baked in”
– Always sceptical of a patriarchal god
– At 9 yrs, trying to make sense of the death of a cousin. Bargaining w/god & praying to protect loved ones
– Realising bad/good things happen for no reason & interrogating the idea of god
– Agnostic now. “As sceptical of staunch atheism as I am of staunch religiosity.”
– Humility, interconnectedness. Meditation, dancing with trees
– Limits of knowledge (now or ever)
– Credence & probabilities vs. binary beliefs
– Psychedelics: the science & the experience. The comfort of universal interconnectedness
– “I’m not convinced of any afterlife or a soul that will go on”
– Terror management. Coming to terms w/the fear of death (maybe a next book!). We know we’ll die but don’t want to! Coping via religion, group continuity as a response…
– “Can I confront this reality [death] & make friends with it?… what would that open up in terms of freedom?”
…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. Come join us there!
Thanks Graham.
Lee McIntyre (leemcintyrebooks.com & @LeeCMcIntyre) is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy & History of Science at Boston University & an Instructor in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. Lee is the author of How to Talk to a …continue
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