104: “Veganism is the secular manifestation of Ahimsa” – author Jordi Casamitjana – Sentientism

Jordi is an ethical vegan, a zoologist and a veganism content writer and consultant. He has been involved in different aspects of animal protection for many years. He became well-known for securing ethical veganism as a protected characteristic under the UK Equality Act 2010 in a landmark Employment Tribunal case. He has worked doing campaigning, lobbying, scientific research, undercover investigations and consultancy. He has authored several books, including “Ethical Vegan: A Personal and Political Journey to Change the World”.

In 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.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome 

01:14 Jordi's Intro

- Adding new identities: Zoology, ethical vegan, activist, writer.

- Legal case re: ethical veganism becoming a protected philosophical belief in the UK

- Writing "The Ethical Vegan"

03:26 What's Real?

- Growing up in Catalonia as a Roman Catholic (like 99.9% of people there)

- Becoming atheist as a child despite "I never met one... I assumed that everybody else believed in the Catholic god"

- Other cultures seemed to be "pre-Catholic"

- Living under the oppression of Franco's fascist dictatorship "Catalan culture survived underground." "As a child... the message you get is 'this reality is not the real one'" "I have to maintain a reality against the reality around me" That led to questioning Catholicism

- Being bullied "The world was a completely hostile place to me... the country... the streets"

- Discovering the welcome of the animal world & nature "I could see there was something better"

- Catalan Catholicism was softer. More open to doubt than the fascist-friendly, Spanish version

- Internal struggle at 12 yrs "What happens if I don't believe"

- "Protestants tend to become agnostics. Catholics tend to become atheists."

- "I prayed to god to make me an atheist... so I can discover you by myself"

- Being anti-religious at first, but softening with age

- Secular Buddhism

- Formal institutional religions vs. more personal/flexible religions & spirituality

- "I built my philosophy from instinct"

- Naturalistic & mystical/spiritual connections with nature

- "That bark seems more important than what you were just saying" :)

- The same feeling of awe can be interpreted in spiritual or naturalistic ways

- Jordi's 13 hour lecture on "From Nothing to Everything - a Natural History of the Universe"

- "Reality is a subjective thing but also shared"... "Find the points in common"

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

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Thanks Graham.