19: "Diverse sentients could live in mutual symbiosis" - Artist Graham Bessellieu - Sentientist Conversations

Full show notes at: https://sentientism.info/diverse-sentients-could-live-in-mutual-symbiosis-graham-bessellieu-new-sentientist-conversation. The video is here on the Sentientism YouTube channel.

Graham is an artist, a photographer and a video/audio content producer.

In these Sentientist Conversations, we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”. Sentientism is “evidence, commitment & compassion for all sentient beings.”

We discuss:

Being raised Christian
Going from a soprano to a bass during a church choir tour
Love and compassion as central to Christian ethics
Eternal torture in hell maybe isn’t ethical – a trigger for re-thinking
Comparative religion, logical contradictions
The weakness of theodicies (explanations for evil)
New Atheism, Dennett, Harris and naturalism
Are most religious people more moral than their religions?
A naturalistic grounding for ethics
Peter Singer’s “Animal Liberation”. Developing ethics through evidence and reason
Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” and factory farming
Earthlings, the documentary
How ethical conviction helped Graham work through the practical and social challenges of giving up animal products
How some of the most fundamental philosophical challenges have the simplest answers, but social norms get in the way
Is animal farming a “necessary evil”?
Our non-human animal friends make a cameo appearance
The amazing ethical gymnastics people do to try and justify continuing to consume animal products (toddler farming anyone?)
Normalising rationality and sentiocentrism. Getting them to be mainstream
Why people should adopt Sentientism quickly while it’s still edgy and cool
Clean meat and plant-based meats
Ending animal farming and exploitation and using sanctuaries as part of transition
Zoonotic disease risks
The common ground, even a political majority, re: ending factory farming: Sentience Politics, Cory Bookers’ farm bill
Extending legal personhood to non-humans
Mitigating wild animal suffering (see Animal Ethics and Wild Animal Initiative orgs)
Difficult problems and uncertain solutions don’t justify excluding sentient beings from moral consideration
Effective Altruism – how to do the most good
David Deutsch & “The Beginning of Infinity”… Getting to better problems
Steven Pinker & “Enlightenment Now”
...and more... Full show notes here

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” You can find out more at Sentientism.info. Join hundreds of others on our “wall” using this simple form.

Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our community groups. Our main group is here on FaceBook.

Thanks to Graham Bessellieu for his post-prod work on this video. Follow him at @cgbessellieu.