153: "Just dive in and meet people where they're at" - Ashley Byrne - PETA Outreach Director - Sentientism

Ashley is Director of Outreach for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). She has led a broad range of PETA’s campaigns and has been interviewed about her work to promote animal rights by the LA Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and in many other publications.

In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?”

Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is ⁠⁠⁠here on YouTube⁠⁠⁠.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:33 Ashley Intro

- 16 years at #PETA: public campaigns, celebrities... "enjoying every minute of it"

03:18 What Matters

- #ChristianScience "there was never a divide... this is science & this is god... a lot of spirituality"

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Science (see risks re: prayer vs. medicine)

- Father "a non-practising Catholic... not a religious person but was very supportive of... that part of my mother's life"

- Personal relationship with god "connect directly with this spiritual part of your life"

- More a spiritual, all-pervasive god than a "judgemental, human figure"

- Rejecting "we judge everything based on a human worldview"

- Universally accessible rather than in/out-group based

- "Not telling you what to do"

- Religious vs. scientific views of reality "It never occurred to me that those things could be incompatible"

- Spiritual rather than literal interpretation of the #bible

- "#spiritually I really still do identify with these ideas & these values"

- "Macro spiritual concepts of love... that bring us out of what's right in front of us"

- "Isn't so much of science trying to go bigger & deeper"

- Science that we don't yet understand that can sometimes be anticipated by mystical/spiritual thinking

- Ontological (what's real?) & epistemological (how should we work it out?) naturalism

- Risks of wishful thinking

- #faith vs. #naturalism "I'm the latter... the evidence"

- Is there evidence that would lead you to reject Christian Science? "it's more of a spiritual practice"

- "#spirituality ... it is a scientific pursuit... our ideas of science are too limited"

- Risks of dogma / harmful & discriminatory ethics in religious/supernatural worldviews

- "If you have an ethical question about the world you should be going back & working it out with these spiritual tools"

- Growing up in #losangeles

- One 8th grade term in a Southern #Baptist school "pamphlets in the office that told you why every other religion in the world was wrong & sinful - mine was in there"

- "You're going to hell!"

- "I was constantly being told 'be quiet, sit down, stop asking questions'... I remember the word 'obey' was used a lot"... "I didn't get it... why can't you answer these questions?"

- The #trauma caused by religious beliefs (e.g. threat of hell)

- Secularism & kids learning about multilple worldviews

41:08 What Matters?

- "My parents really laid the foundation... for my sense of ethics... each coming from their own respective backgrounds... two extremely ethical, thoughtful, kind, intelligent people."

- You don't need an old book to be a good person... universal goods

- "Goodness is something more primal than that [#divinecommandtheory]"

45:30 Who Matters?

- "I grew up in an animal loving household... unquestionably family members"

- The family dog: "She loved me and I loved her"

- "There was never any idea that these weren't individuals"

01:16:33 How Can We Make A Better Future?

...and much more. Full show notes at ⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at ⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠"I'm a Sentientist" wall⁠⁠⁠ via ⁠⁠⁠this simple form⁠⁠⁠.

Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is ⁠⁠⁠here on FaceBook⁠⁠⁠. Come join us there!