Amy Wilson (https://twitter.com/Ms_AmyPWilson) is an Animal, Human & Earth Rights Lawyer. She founded the Animal Law Reform & Animal Law Africa NGOs. She works as the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative Fellow at the Center for Animal Law Studies and volunteers with a number of other organizations in South Africa, across Africa and in the USA. In South Africa, Amy has leadership roles with the Coalition of African Animal Welfare Organisations and the Humane Education Trust. Throughout Africa, she works with Lawyers for Animal Protection in Africa.

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 https://youtu.be/p--DwudERgQ on Sentientism YouTube.

We discuss:

- Social justice & taking integrated approaches to animal, human & even earth rights

- Growing up in post-apartheid South Africa

- Attending convent school as a Presbyterian (non-Catholic) christian. Feeling excluded & "lesser"

- Reading the Bible: "Revelations was my jam!"

- Realising the inconsistencies in religion

- Encountering homophobia "Am I somehow damned to hell" for being bi-sexual?

- "Everything kind of feels sinful"

- The fear around questioning. Asking even the uncomfortable questions

- Learning about other religions. Commonalities & rigidity

- Moving from religion to spirituality. Universal compassion for all beings. Still exploring.

- Moving away from religion because of evidence/reason & warped ethics

- The "dominion over animals" concept 

- The pre-human origins of morality

- The use of religion as a weapon of oppressive colonial power

- Being open-minded about whether we are part of a broader universal consciousness

- Gaia and spirituality. Does consciousness create matter?

- The power of never being completely sure of anything

- The risks of religious & scientistic dogmas & arrogance

- "Morality isn't linked to religion"

- The Golden Rule

- Everything is connected, every one matters

- Going vegetarian then vegan. "It took a long time for me to connect the dots. I loved animals so much & I didn't realise eating them was wrong"

- The "aha moment" while eating an animal

Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Our main one is on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism.

Thanks, Graham for the post-production: https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu