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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Altamush Saeed is an animal and environmental law professor. He teaches Pakistan’s 1st Animal Law Advocacy Course and is Founding Managing Partner At Environmental and Animal Rights Consultants, Pakistan’s 1st dedicated Animal and Environmental law and policy firm. Altamush is known for his non-profit work on Interspecies Justice for which he has won multiple awards. He also co-founded the Charity Doings Foundation, a non-profit that aims to save all life, be it human, animal, or the environment in Pakistan. Amongst many other advisory roles he serves as a strategic academic advisor and advocate for Muslim Veganism and Environmentalism at Green Islam.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the most important questions: “what’s real?”, “who matters?” and “how can we make a better world?”
Sentientism answers those questions with “evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
00:00 Clips!
01:11 Welcome
– Islam and non-human animals
– Animals as survivors/victims of natural disasters
03:00 Altamush’s Intro
– 3 masters degrees: animal, environmental and human rights law “I always see the three disciplines as together”
– Teaching law
– Founding and running a non-profit and a law firm
– Becoming a documentary film-maker
05:00 What’s Real?
– “I’ve had multiple identities”
– Growing up in Pakistan
– Doctor parents… a good education… privileges
– “Animals are kind of invisible”
– “this anthropocentric mindset… fuelled by the idea that you’re unable to see beyond your own needs… until they’re met at a proper scale… it’s hard for people to see beyond human beings… that’s the lived reality in Pakistan.”
– Pakistan as an Islamic nation “part of our constitution… we have laws on Islam… laws on animal rights in Islam… codified, however not implemented properly.”
– “Initially I didn’t see animals… that’s how I started my non-profit”
– “A cat came into my life… even though I physically rescued her she was the one who mentally rescued me… that’s the day when I started seeing animals for who they really are…”
– JW: Religious belief based on faith/revelation/authority or on evidence and reason?
– “It’s actually both of them… I do believe in the text… the Quran… taught about that from a very young age… we pray… community… good human rights stuff”
– “All Muslims are khalifa which is basically a ruler. But the actual word is steward… a sovereign who has responsibility for everything…”
– “That’s not normally how it’s read… you are the most superior being… everything has been made for you… you have divine permission to do anything including eating animals.”
– “I used reason… the most driving reasoning for me was the mercy of Allah… there are constant references that his mercy overpowers his anger”
13:05 What and Who Matters?
17:00 Who Matters?
41:52 A Better World?
01:04:48 Follow Altamush
And more… full show notes at Sentientism.info.
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