Pain and suffering are prima facie bad things. They are widespread. So the traditional argument against theism (the argument from evil) starts with them. Defendants of God’s goodness either have to explain why there is evil (i.e. offer a theodicy) or have at least to show that the argument from evil has no force against theism. Alvin Pantinga (1985) distinguishes between offering a (positive) t...

An integer is called evil if the number of ones in its binary expansion is even and odious if the number of ones in the binary expansion is odd. If we look at the integers between 0 and 15 we find that 0, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 15 are evil and that 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14 are odious. Next we say that if two consecutive integers are evil then this is a pair of evil twins and that if two consecuti...

We have identified a novel gene, GR6, located Within the leukemia breakpoint region of 3q21, that is normally expressed in early fetal development but not in adult peripheral blood. CR6 is activated in the UCSD-AML1 cell line and in a leukemic sample, both of which carry a t(3;3)(q21;q26). In UCSD-AML1, we have also identified fusion tran scripts between the ecotropic viral insertion site I (EV...

Moral vitalism refers to a tendency to view good and evil as actual forces that can influence people and events. We introduce a scale designed to assess the belief in moral vitalism. High scorers on the scale endorse items such as “There are underlying forces of good and evil in this world.” After establishing the reliability and criterion validity of the scale (Studies 1, 2a, and 2b), we exami...

Discussions of the problem of evil presuppose and appeal to axiological and metaethical assumptions, but seldom pay adequate attention to those assumptions. I argue that certain theories of value are consistent with theistic answers to the argument from evil and that several other well-known theories of value, such as hedonism, are difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with theism. Althoug...

We have identified a novel gene, GR6, located Within the leukemia breakpoint region of 3q21, that is normally expressed in early fetal development but not in adult peripheral blood. CR6 is activated in the UCSD-AML1 cell line and in a leukemic sample, both of which carry a t(3;3)(q21;q26). In UCSD-AML1, we have also identified fusion tran scripts between the ecotropic viral insertion site I (EV...

Events such as the Nuremberg Trials in Germany, or the Truth and Reconciliation Commission proceedings in South Africa, raise questions about the psychology of perpetrators of crimes against humanity. While such violations occur within particular socio-political contexts, given the significant advances in clinical neuroscience in the past several decades, is it possible to outline a 'psychobiol...

Although we live in a modern world dominated in many ways by the rationality of science and technology, age-old millennial beliefs in the supernatural, good and evil, a coming apocalyptic upheaval, and a day of judgment are still widely held throughout the world. Even among non-religious people, similar beliefs exist, especially in political ideologies. Focusing on evil, I contend that most evi...