Tailor your religion, Newkirk says.

Question: Do you have a personal philosophy?

Ingrid Newkirk: I do have a personal philosophy. I’m an atheist. I believe that if you have a religion, it should be sort of to your personal principles. In my case I believe kindness is one of the best religions that you can have. And in fact all the major religions are founded on that principle. It’s just that followers deviate from it over a period of time. Mohamed used to say to his followers never to overload a donkey; to rest the donkey; never to throw stones at a bird; all these things.

In Judaism there are many rabbis who say that you shouldn’t eat animals, that you shouldn’t ever wear the fur of animals. In Christianity of course Jesus knew if a little sparrow fell and was always advocating kindness to all living beings. And Buddhism, Hinduism, the gamut. So to me the core value is kindness and just trying to be decent.

Recorded on: November 12, 2007