Matthew Adelstein on Theism, Utilitarianism, and Animal Welfare

Matthew Adelstein writes the Substack "Bentham's Newsletter" under the alias "Bentham's Bulldog." He is the rare thinker who will, in one breath, defend a rigorous logical case for the existence of God, and in the next insist that we should worry more about shrimp than about most public-policy debates. His outlook isn’t contrarian for sport; it’s the consequence of three guiding hunches he’s written about: that our moral circle is still way too small, that good arguments should beat gut feelings even when they get weird, and that tribal loyalty is the mind-killer. Follow that recipe and you end up somewhere delightfully off-map—and that’s exactly where this conversation goes.

In this episode, I got a chance to speak with him about the philosophical arguments for the existence of God, the merits of utilitarianism, and whether or not we should kill animal predators to prevent them from killing other animals.

Show Notes

"The Ultimate Guide To The Anthropic Argument" by Bentham's Bulldog, Bentham's Newsletter

"Islam Is Very Implausible" by Bentham's Bulldog, Bentham's Newsletter