Julie (https://twitter.com/JulieTaylorfai1/​) is an author, artist and animal activist. 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 audio is also on our Podcast – subscribe here: https://apple.co/391khQO​ ​ & all the other platforms https://pod.link/1540408008​​​​.

We discuss (with Luna barking in the background):

• Growing up reading the Children’s Encyclopedia
• Julie’s life in public service & social work
• Studying Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism
• Spirituality & inter-connectedness & diversity
• Naturalistic and mystical versions of awe, wonder and inter-connectedness
• “There’s some spirit in everything”
• Being comfortable not knowing. Humility and open-mindedness
• “I’ve always had more questions than answers”
• Starting every day in prayer and meditation to god, but not a god defined by any established religion
• “god” as an energy in the universe
• “Humans are like ants in a big machine” Our perceptions are limited
• Being a freethinker. Interested in all cultures and all religions
• Shifting from being focused on human issues to becoming a non-human animal advocate
• Albert Schweitzer‘s reverence for life
• Having ancestors that profited from animal exploitation
• Hating injustice, oppression and abuse
• Bertrand Russell’s analytic philosophy
• Being a teacher and educator. The importance of a holistic education about all aspects of life
• An experience with a stray dog. Being talked into looking after it
• Seeing a council worker take the perspective of non-humans seriously
• Visiting an egg farm and seeing the hens crammed in to cages
• Reporting the egg farm to the RSPCA and being told “it’s legal”
• The danger of a reverence for nature leading to excuses about animal product consumption “life consumes life…”
• Experiencing unconditional love as a child
• Patterns of abuse
• The importance of animal law and regulations
• The range of ways individuals can drive change, both personally and through our roles influencing and driving institutions
• Are we at the beginning of a huge movement for non-human animals?
• The power of social media to help us drive change
• The influence of education and indoctrination
• The influence of films and fiction. Dominion, Gunda, Seaspiracy, books
• “Within one generation – everything will be very different”
• Millions of animals are exploited, tortured and killed in research & testing
• “If it was ethically justified they would’t need to hide it.” “Most people don’t want to needlessly cause suffering & death”.
• Tapping in to latent decent human ethics?
• Fighting indifference.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​. Join our “wall” https://sentientism.info/wall/​ using this form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentien…​. ​Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Our main one is on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/groups/senti…​. Thanks, Graham for the post-production: https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu​.