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"A dual indoctrination of farm culture... and religion" - Jim Mason - Sentientism 219
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Jim Mason is a lawyer, journalist and animal rights activist. He was introduced to philosopher Peter Singer, guest on Sentientism episodes 156 and 218, in 1974. Their book Animal Factories was first published in 1980 and revised in 1990. It provides a critical review and photographic documentation of factory farming practices in North America. Jim's book, An Unnatural Order: The Roots of Our Destruction of Nature looks at the historical and cultural roots of the Western belief in God-given dominion over the living world. Jim was elected to the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame in 2001.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the most important questions: “what’s real?”, “who matters?” and "how can we make a better world?"
Sentientism answers those questions with "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
00:00 Clips!
01:15 Welcome
02:47 Jim's Intro
- Raised on an animal farm, milking cows, killing chickens
- Vegetarian since 1955 and more recently vegan
- Born during WWII, growing up in 1940-50s rural America
- Religious indoctrination "a family of Bible thumpers... I had to be in church every time the door was open"
- Methodist Christianity
- "A dual indoctrination of farm culture... and religion... the most intense Christian indoctrination"
- "I was brought up on human supremacy and using animals and animal exploitation as a way of life"
- Until early 30's "I never really departed from that agrarian mentality"
- "I became an atheist at Sunday School"
- Mourning the loss of dog Butch "my main companion... a brother to me"
- "I asked the preacher... 'Will I see Butch in heaven?'... he finally droned on... 'No we don't see animals in heaven - animals don't have souls'... By the time the service was over I began to consciously think 'I am an atheist - I don't believe this stuff'"
- "I have since graduated from atheism to anti-theism... I don't like any form of theism... it's anti-science... we'll find a better kind of based for our spirituality other than superstition."
06:41 What's Real? - "It's human supremacy. We're made in the image of god. And since I've become an atheist I've realised that we've made god in the image of ourselves... We created a god that looked like us to give us power over the world."
- Old Testament upbringing... "[not] Christian Nationalist or fundamentalist... good old mainstream Protestants"
- Era of segregation and "women's oppression had not occurred to us yet"... Trad Wives "church, children, kitchen"
- God, bible, Jesus "we were sinful and we had to come to church to purge ourselves... a whole system to train us to behave..."
26:56 What Matters? 42:20 Who Matters?
01:02:34 A Better World?
Follow Jim
- @JimMasonAUO (“reluctantly – I think it’s [Twitter] in it’s death throes”)
And 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.
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