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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Yasmine (https://twitter.com/YasMohammedxx & https://www.yasminemohammed.com/) is a rights activist, advocating for the rights of women living within Islamic majority countries. Yasmine founded Free Hearts Free Minds (https://www.freeheartsfreeminds.com/). Her book, Unveiled, recalls her experiences growing up in a fundamentalist Islamic household & her arranged marriage to a member of Al-Qaeda.
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:
– Growing up in a fundamentalist Muslim household in Canada, attending Islamic school, being dressed in hijab & niqab
– Being forced into marriage with an Al Qaeda member (now in prison in Egypt), considered “strong enough to control me”
– Questioning things from a young age
– The isolation of some religious communities even in secular states
– Having a daughter & that being a catalyst for change
– Escaping from husband & family
– Going to university & learning about religions. The intoxication of being allowed to question
– “I’ve been wasting my whole life terrified of a figment of the imagination of some ancient man”
– “You spend so much of your life ruled by a fairy tale”
– What’s real? Believing in Islam
– “It’s embarrassing to admit I really did believe these things”
– “You’re indoctrinated from birth… & punished for questioning”
– “You believe or you burn in hell”
– “Every aspect of your life is laid out… Questioning is challenging god himself. So you must submit”
– The life of Mohammed. The Quran as the word of god
– “You don’t think ‘is this a good thing to do?’ you think ‘is this the correct thing to do?'”
– What’s real? Leaving Islam
– Taking off the hijab & being told “you need to be killed before you leave Islam” by her mother, “I will be punished for eternity for having a daughter who is an infidel”
– How a Jehovah’s Witness mother might allow their child to die rather than allow a blood transfusion
– Abraham’s willingness to kill his own son
– “Honour killings” (murders)
– Religious compliance as above “ordinary morality”
– Studying religion, seeing 9/11 happen & being horrified
– Seeing a BBC reporter find Bin-Laden documents mentioning Yas’ ex-husband’s firm
– “I needed to get my daughter out of that world before she started to think that was OK”
– Hints of fundamentalism in the atheist movement
– Appearing in Jay Shapiro’s film “Islam & the future of tolerance” w/Sam Harris & Maajid Nawaz
– “Meditation saved my life”
– Humility & open-mindedness at the heart of naturalism
– And more… (see YouTube for full notes)
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our “wall” https://sentientism.info/wall/ w/this form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist.
Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism. Thanks Graham https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu.
Justine Karst is Associate Professor at the University of Alberta in Canada. As an ecologist she studies the mycorrhizal ecology of forests. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Ecology and President of the International Mycorrhiza Society. In Sentientist Conversations we …continue
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David Clough is Professor and Chair in Theology and AppliedSciences at the University of Aberdeen. He is a Local Preacher in the Methodist Church. David is also co-president of the charity CreatureKind and he founded the DefaultVeg project, now part …continue
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Joan Slonczewski is a microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer who explores biology and space travel. Their books have twice earned the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel: “A Door into Ocean” and …continue
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