Horrendous evil describes the anthropological view of excessive evils which devastate and dehumanise both victim and perpetrator, casting doubt as to whether life is worth living. Divine exultation and divine agony are viewed from the perspective of divinity, whose initial creation brought God pleasure and its fall an offence so deep that, though he considered its total destruction, God instead...

Background Depressive patients can derive consolation as well as struggle from their religion. Outside the Western-Christian cultures these phenomena have not received much empirical exploration. The current study aims to describe how positive and negative religious coping strategies relate to depressive symptoms in different ethnic groups in The Netherlands. Methods Interview data were derived...

The behavior of resazurin (1) as an electron acceptor in glucose oxidase (GOD)-catalyzed oxidation of glucose under anaerobic conditions is described. When a mixture of 1, glucose, and GOD in phosphate buffer (pH 7.4, 0.1 M) was incubated at 25 degrees C, the resulting solution turned purple to fluorescent pink due to the deoxygenated product, resorufin (2). On incubation of 1 with GOD alone or...

A novel amperometric glucose biosensor was fabricated by layer-by-layer self-assembly of gold nanorods (AuNRs) and glucose oxidase (GOD) onto single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)-functionalized three-dimensional sol-gel matrix. A thiolated aqueous silica sol containing SWCNTs was first assembled on the surface of a cleaned Au electrode, and then the alternate self-assembly of AuNRs and GOD w...

The emergent new science of synthetic biology is challenging entrenched distinctions between, amongst others, life and non-life, the natural and the artificial, the evolved and the designed, and even the material and the informational. Whenever such culturally sanctioned boundaries are breached, researchers are inevitably accused of playing God or treading in Frankenstein's footsteps. Bioethici...

God loves all people equally. Yet the special place in God’s heart for the poor and vulnerable is evident throughout the Bible (for example: Exodus 22:21-27, Psalm 12:5, 140:12, 146:7-9, Proverbs 19:17, 21:13, Isaiah 3:14-15, 25:4, Luke 1:52-53, James 2:5). God’s compassion is most evident in tender attentiveness toward poor women and children: “You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. If you d...

In this paper, single-stranded DNA (ss-DNA) is demonstrated to functionalize graphene (GR) and to further guide the growth of PtAu bimetallic nanoparticles (PtAuNPs) on GR with high densities and dispersion. The obtained nanocomposites (PtAuNPs/ss-DNA/GR) were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS), and electrochemical techniques. The...

The best world that an omnipotent God could create is the best of all logically possible worlds. Accordingly, it has been supposed that if the actual world was created by an omnipotent, perfectly good God, it must be the best of all logically possible worlds. In this paper I shall argue that ethical views typical of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition do not require the JudeoChristian theis...