Sentientism 44: "There is suffering - end it!" - Actress Victoria Lynn - Sentientist Conversation
Victoria (https://www.victorialynn.me/ & https://twitter.com/incertaspecie) is an actress, film producer, writer, voiceover artist and animal activist. She has appeared in Netflix's "Haunted", the Comedy Central show "Nathan for You", in various theatre productions & in the video game "Kingdom Come: Delieverance". Victoria is an animal rights activist. She co-founded the production company Quantum Kitten. Look out for Victoria's new Cosmic Creature app (https://www.victoria-hogan.com/cosmic-creature.
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 video of our conversation is here on YouTube (subscribe!) https://youtu.be/VKhii84yh5E.
We discuss:
- Victoria's life in the performing arts & animal activism
- Holding the concept of reality lightly
- Our own experience as central to our reality
- We're not fully conscious of much that we do
- Growing up Christian. Believing in god, praying
- Ditching religion at 10-11 yrs
- Being an angry, anti-Christian atheist in early teens
- Rejecting the homophobia & freedom restrictions of Christianity
- Exploring spirituality, Wicca, Buddhism, Hinduism and holding them all as loosely true or real
- Re-visiting some Christian concepts and finding it less troubling, while still rejecting where it conflicts with equality
- The risks of solipsism. Giving up on knowing
- Being sceptical even of our own perceptions and rationality
- Can people have separate personal "truths" and still understand each other and collaborate?
- The path from formal religion to "angry atheism" to a broader spirituality or a more humble naturalism
- Is there "A divine source we are working our way towards"?
- Does a broader spirituality warp compassionate ethics less than the idea of god as a being?
- The role of intuition
- "Most people I encounter are kind"
- The bizarre admission of: "Without religion - what's stopping us from looting and murdering?"
- "Is religion really all that keeps you from murdering?"
- How much wrong comes from ignorance rather than intention (e.g. animal farming)
- Most religious people are more compassionate than their gods or religious books. Which is why most don't follow the books
- Maybe religion doesn't influence ethics that much for good or ill
- Grounding morality in the experiences of others (or something else)?
- Having a very intense, ineffable psychedelic experience using DMT: The universe is relatively indifferent. Nature is sometimes cruel and sometimes kind. The universe values creation (e.g. having a child). The universe wants to exist. Suffering leads to destruction. Nurturing leads to life, flourishing and new creation
- And more (see Sentientism.info for full show notes)
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/.
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Thanks, Graham for the post-production: https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu.