Sentientism | "I plant seeds for children... to think for themselves" Louisa Jane Smith of The RE Podcast - ep:205 @Sentientism | Uploaded July 2024 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
Louisa (sentientism.info/sentientist-pledge/louisa-jane-smith) is a Religious Education (RE) Teacher and Head of Life Skills at a school in England. She is host of the RE podcast, an RE Subject reviewer for Oak National, a member of the NATRE (National Association for Teachers of Religious Education) executive committee and the Surrey SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) as well as being a public speaker and author.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & open.spotify.com/show/3c9OG5Mwf7PGChWFYBzuQI.
00:00 Clips!
00:45 Welcome
- Kids today are "The most enlightened generation... so socially aware... so aware of, for better or worse, the bigger picture... so passionate about things that really matter."
- Jamie's appearance on The RE Podcast: therepodcast.co.uk/post/s12-e6-the-one-about-sentientism
- "The reason we love RE [religious education] is because we love those big questions... this is like a proper geek out for me!"
- The balance between neutrality and authenticity for RE teachers... how much to talk about your own worldview
05:45 Louisa's Intro
- 22 years of RE teaching in UK secondary schools
- The RE Podcast "little lockdown project... I'd been wanting to do something creative... the first dedicated podcast for students and teachers of RE"
- "I had no idea what a podcast was... the RE community... have been so supportive... now nearing 4 years of doing this... I absolutely love it"
- Religious Education "fairly unique... to British schools... a national entitlement... every child up to the age of 18"
- How RE has evolved from religious instruction "how to be a good Christian" to now: "religion and worldviews - everybody in the world has a worldview... we all stand somewhere... show respect... compassion for people who think differently... religious and non-religious worldviews"
- NATRE executive committee
- Oak National online teaching platform
09:19 What's Real?
- #catholic mum, #atheist dad, brought up Catholic (christening, school, church)
- "You just accept the reality that you are given by your caretakers. And that was then reinforced at school... reinforced at church... with my friends..."
- Despite atheist dad: "At no point did I really consider that atheism was a valid worldview"
- At 8 yrs old "My dad had this big conversion... from being a complete and utter atheist and hating religion to becoming quite an evangelical Christian... he had a religious experience... he heard a voice... felt a pressure... waves of energy going through him."
- Going to protestant evangelical church with dad "so very different from my Catholic version... quite exciting... my whole family left the Catholic church and went to the Protestant church."
- "It was quite fundamentalist... to the point of it being quite judgmental"
- "University was the first time I really questioned anything... taken out of my little religious bubble... exposed to... alternative ideas"
- "A lot of the things I'd been told just didn't hold up to scrutiny... why there's evil and suffering... views about who was in and who was out... everyone else is going to hell... attitudes to homosexuality..."
- "I ended up rejecting everything... if something falls apart everything falls apart"
- "This is why some people are very hesitant to question their faith - in case it all falls apart... so you don't ask questions you just accept... blind faith is something that's celebrated in some versions of Christianity"
- "I'm a naturally inquisitive, curious, cynical, questioning person - so as soon as I was given that opportunity I found that actually Christian faith just didn't sit right with me"
- "I don't like the idea of people going to hell. I don't like the idea that homosexuality is wrong. I don't think if there was a god this is the world that we would see... I became an atheist"
- "I didn't seem to get the same thing from Christianity that everybody else got... peace... joy... feel god's presence... answered prayer"
- "This doesn't sit morally with me... but I think there's also that... lack of experience... lack of evidence in the things I was believing"
- "Every single part of it was difficult... I got rejected from my church... the friends that I had at church stopped inviting me to things..."
35:34 What Matters?
46:15 Who Matters?
01:11:26 A Better Future?
01:30:50 Follow Louisa
- https://x.com/TheREPodcast1
- therepodcast.co.uk
& much more... (sentientism.info for full notes) #sentientism
#sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all #sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall sentientism.info/wall/. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. E.g.: facebook.com/groups/sentientism.
Louisa (sentientism.info/sentientist-pledge/louisa-jane-smith) is a Religious Education (RE) Teacher and Head of Life Skills at a school in England. She is host of the RE podcast, an RE Subject reviewer for Oak National, a member of the NATRE (National Association for Teachers of Religious Education) executive committee and the Surrey SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) as well as being a public speaker and author.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & open.spotify.com/show/3c9OG5Mwf7PGChWFYBzuQI.
00:00 Clips!
00:45 Welcome
- Kids today are "The most enlightened generation... so socially aware... so aware of, for better or worse, the bigger picture... so passionate about things that really matter."
- Jamie's appearance on The RE Podcast: therepodcast.co.uk/post/s12-e6-the-one-about-sentientism
- "The reason we love RE [religious education] is because we love those big questions... this is like a proper geek out for me!"
- The balance between neutrality and authenticity for RE teachers... how much to talk about your own worldview
05:45 Louisa's Intro
- 22 years of RE teaching in UK secondary schools
- The RE Podcast "little lockdown project... I'd been wanting to do something creative... the first dedicated podcast for students and teachers of RE"
- "I had no idea what a podcast was... the RE community... have been so supportive... now nearing 4 years of doing this... I absolutely love it"
- Religious Education "fairly unique... to British schools... a national entitlement... every child up to the age of 18"
- How RE has evolved from religious instruction "how to be a good Christian" to now: "religion and worldviews - everybody in the world has a worldview... we all stand somewhere... show respect... compassion for people who think differently... religious and non-religious worldviews"
- NATRE executive committee
- Oak National online teaching platform
09:19 What's Real?
- #catholic mum, #atheist dad, brought up Catholic (christening, school, church)
- "You just accept the reality that you are given by your caretakers. And that was then reinforced at school... reinforced at church... with my friends..."
- Despite atheist dad: "At no point did I really consider that atheism was a valid worldview"
- At 8 yrs old "My dad had this big conversion... from being a complete and utter atheist and hating religion to becoming quite an evangelical Christian... he had a religious experience... he heard a voice... felt a pressure... waves of energy going through him."
- Going to protestant evangelical church with dad "so very different from my Catholic version... quite exciting... my whole family left the Catholic church and went to the Protestant church."
- "It was quite fundamentalist... to the point of it being quite judgmental"
- "University was the first time I really questioned anything... taken out of my little religious bubble... exposed to... alternative ideas"
- "A lot of the things I'd been told just didn't hold up to scrutiny... why there's evil and suffering... views about who was in and who was out... everyone else is going to hell... attitudes to homosexuality..."
- "I ended up rejecting everything... if something falls apart everything falls apart"
- "This is why some people are very hesitant to question their faith - in case it all falls apart... so you don't ask questions you just accept... blind faith is something that's celebrated in some versions of Christianity"
- "I'm a naturally inquisitive, curious, cynical, questioning person - so as soon as I was given that opportunity I found that actually Christian faith just didn't sit right with me"
- "I don't like the idea of people going to hell. I don't like the idea that homosexuality is wrong. I don't think if there was a god this is the world that we would see... I became an atheist"
- "I didn't seem to get the same thing from Christianity that everybody else got... peace... joy... feel god's presence... answered prayer"
- "This doesn't sit morally with me... but I think there's also that... lack of experience... lack of evidence in the things I was believing"
- "Every single part of it was difficult... I got rejected from my church... the friends that I had at church stopped inviting me to things..."
35:34 What Matters?
46:15 Who Matters?
01:11:26 A Better Future?
01:30:50 Follow Louisa
- https://x.com/TheREPodcast1
- therepodcast.co.uk
& much more... (sentientism.info for full notes) #sentientism
#sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all #sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall sentientism.info/wall/. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. E.g.: facebook.com/groups/sentientism.
