Jamie Woodhouse, author, campaigner, vegan and Sentientist tackles two of the biggest questions in philosophy; what is real and what matters from a moral perspective? In this week’s episode, Jamie discusses at length Sentientism, how Jamie discovered it, his goals and his thoughts on how many people already practice Sentientism in small ways.

Simply put, Sentientism is evidence, reason, and compassion for all beings; going beyond and further developing ideas grounded in atheism and humanism. Growing up in a traditionally religious household Jamie later discovered other religions and after much learning and researching, he came to the realisation that religion was more than likely man made. This eventually led him to finding a moral ground and evidence-based perspective in Sentientism.

Listen in to discover how this new perspective could shape your worldview and provide ideas on how to look at the world from a different point of view.

“And I think nearly everybody is compassionate, but we find it very easy to be compassionate with people that agree with us.”

Top Takeaways:

• One of the biggest questions is what is real and should be believed? The other big question is what truly matters at the end of the day? By using evidence to find what is real, by using reason to determine what should be believed, and by using compassion to find what matters, Sentientism is the sum of reason, evidence, and compassion to answer these two important questions.
• The idea of suffering and of moral circles should not be limited to just humans. The moral circle should be widened.
• Peter and Jamie both have explored religion in their lives. However, they both discovered that they felt like there was a lack of evidence and a certain amount of belief or faith to be committed. Peter described how he could find more comfort and joy in what he could explain and see with his own eyes. Jamie then debunks the idea that atheism is cold, lonely, or dark, and he explains how he is comforted in his certainty.
• Jamie is in favour of total freedom of belief, but people should be able to respect one another’s differences without forcing a religion down someone’s throat. He explains that sometimes corrupt ethics or harm is being caused and that’s where modern society needs to re-evaluate their standings. A religion or belief is not bad, but warped teachings can create harm to others that should not be tolerated today.
• In religion, good and bad is often determined by the deity, but when people move away from religion there are two ways of thinking morally.
• Jamie explains that in Sentientism there is a moral baseline where suffering and pain is bad where flourishing and growth is good. He believes this can also be extended beyond humans, and that life is life. Life is good and pain is bad. Suffering is not just about physical pain and flourishing is not just about success. Emotions, life situations, relationships, and every aspect of your life can reveal suffering or flourishing in your world.
• There are many beliefs that posit a need to achieve this perfect ethical state as a worthwhile goal, but it is also a dangerous mindset. This is because almost everything we do causes harm to another. The idea of purity is not achievable, but that does not mean the idea is not worthy of trying. We should always be working to be better, but we need to be realistic and honest that we cannot attain perfection.

Key Moments:

• [1:08] Definition of Sentientism.
• [2:32] Jamie’s path to finding Sentientism.
• [6:54] Peter discusses the ideas of religion and questioning different beliefs.
• [11:16] Jamie explains people’s evidence in the cases of religion or their beliefs.
• [14:41] The importance of r...