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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Dr Diana Fleischman is an evolutionary psychologist & an author. Until recently she was a senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth. Her field of research includes the study of disgust, human sexuality, hormones & behaviour. She is involved in the effective altruism & animal welfare movements & identifies as a feminist and a Sentientist. Diana’s 2018 Darwin Day Lecture, hosted by Humanists UK, was part of the inspiration for our work developing & raising awareness of Sentientism. You can find Diana at https://twitter.com/sentientist
(yes!) & https://dianaverse.com/.
Why not join her on our “I’m a Sentientist” wall? https://sentientism.info/sentientist-pledge/diana-fleischman.
In these 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 available here on YouTube. Don’t forget to subscribe and click the bell for notifications.
We discuss:
– Evolutionary psychology
– Effective Altruism
– Diana’s Darwin Day talk to Humanists UK
– Whether Humanists are more likely to be ethical vegans
– Whether “carnism” is socialised or a state of nature
– Diana’s father’s German Jewish & Polish family history during WWII & since
– “They fell in love because he fed her a lot of food”
– Diana’s Catholic mother. Being baptised in Portugal
– Going to synagogue with Diana’s grandfather & Catholic Sunday School
– After first communion “I don’t like it & I don’t believe it”
– Going atheist at 9/10 yrs after brother did at 7
– Being fascinated by evolution – “I carried The Evolution Book around like a teddy bear”
– Being teased as “Monkey Girl” for believing in evolution. The worst bullies seemed to be the most religious kids
– Being told in the early 1990’s by a teacher “evolution is controversial – it’s not a settled idea”
– We skipped the evolution chapter in the Biology textbook
– Becoming stridently anti-religious
– “I thought we couldn’t really understand human beings without understanding that humans are animals”
– I met so many wonderful religious people in the vegan movement & became much less aggressively anti-religion
– Religious arguments for why we should be compassionate are wrong but that compassion can still have good outcomes
– Diana’s Hen Do turns into a witches coven
– Weeping after being blessed by a minister & being moved by ritual
– “I am exactly the kind of person who could fall into religious fervour”
– Sam Harris: “Religions shouldn’t have a monopoly on reverence”
– “Nature is a horrible place”
– & much more… (full show notes on YouTube & sentientism.info)
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join Diana on our “wall” https://sentientism.info/wall/ using this form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist.
Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Our main one is here on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism.
Thanks to Graham for his post-prod. Follow him: https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu
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