High God Research Articles

Big Gods in small places: the Random Allocation Game in Mauritius

ABSTRACTThe relationship between religion and social behavior has been the subject of longstanding debates. Recent evolutionary models of religious morality propose that particular types of supernatural beliefs related to moralizing and punitive high gods will have observable effects on prosociality. We tested this hypothesis, comparing the effects of diverse religious beliefs, practices, and contexts among Hindus in Mauritius. We found that specific aspects of religious belief (related to moralizing gods) as well as religious practice (participation in high-intensity rituals) were significant predictors of prosocial behavior. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of religious prosociality and have significant implications for the evolution of morality.

Gods of the Anthropocene: Geo-Spiritual Formations in the Earth’s New Epoch

In this article the author argues that we need not just to ‘decolonize’ the Anthropocene but also to ‘desecularize’ it – to be aware that in the new age of the Earth we may be coeval with gods and spirits. Drawing particularly on the work of Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Georges Bataille, and using concepts from both thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, the author starts to develop an interdisciplinary theory of planetary spirit and use this to speak of both the ‘laminar’ high gods of time that are being invoked to summon the story of Earth’s ongoing transformation into a canonical mythos, and the turbulent lower spirits of place which manifest particular, situated dynamics on an Earth crossed by interlocking gradients and flows of energy, value, power and entropy. He suggests that what might once have been distinct territorialized ‘cultures’ or ‘natures’ in which humans engaged in particular situated patterns of interaction with animals, spirits and other beings are increasingly being convened into a global multinatural system.

The god Iao and his connection with the Biblical God, with special emphasis on the manuscript 4QpapLXXLevb

The personality of the Biblical God spans through all over the writings that comprise the Jewish Hebrew Scriptures and respectively the core of the Christian Old Testament. Despite the absence of an explicit theological exposition, the qualities of the supreme deity sketch a quite distinct profile for Him. On the other side, the god named Iao is found in Greek and Latin sources of the Hellenistic period already since the first century bce. It mainly appears in writings displaying marks of religious syncretism, used as one of the names designating either the highest God or one of his emanations. In the following is examined the possibility that the use of the name Iao, instead of another form of the Tetragrammaton, in the manuscript 4QpapLXXLev b (4Q120; Rahlfs 802) may be the result of a Hellenizing rather than a re-Hebraizing tendency, a view that tends to prevail in the Septuagint studies. Evidence coming from Christian writers shows that for few centuries ce Bible manuscripts that contained the theonym Iao were circulating among them and even possibly produced by them.

The Solicitor-General and the Constitution

Behind every government there is an impressive team of hard-working lawyers. In Australia, the Solicitor-General leads that team. A former Attorney-General once said, 'The Solicitor-General is next to the High Court and God.' And yet the role of government lawyers in Australia, and specifically the Solicitor-General as the most senior of government lawyers, is under-theorised and under-studied.The Role of the Solicitor-General: Negotiating Law, Politics and the Public Interest goes behind the scenes of government – drawing from interviews with over 45 government and judicial officials – to uncover the history, theory and practice of the Australian Solicitor-General. The analysis reveals a role that is of fundamental constitutional importance to ensuring both the legality and the integrity of government action, thus contributing to the achievement of rule-of-law ideals. The Solicitor-General also works to defend government action and prosecute government policies in the court, and thus performs an important role as messenger between the political and judicial branches of government.But the Solicitor-General's position, as both an internal integrity check on government and an external warrior for government, gives rise to competing pressures: between the law, politics and the public interest. The office of the Solicitor-General in Australia has evolved many characteristics across the almost two centuries of its history in an attempt to navigate these tensions. These pressures are not unique to the Australian context. The understanding of the Australian position provided by this book is informed by, and will inform, comparative analysis of the role of government lawyers across the world.

Images of God in Toba Batak storytelling

This paper examines the ways in which God the Creator, the High God, is described in Toba Batak folk-tales. The sources for this investigation are stories recorded in pre-colonial (around 1850), colonial and post-colonial times (up to 2014). In different stories the High God can appear under various names, forms and gender, and resides in various places never inhabited by humans. Unlike a Deus otiosus, the Toba Batak High God is not “inactive” after creation, but continues to be involved in the life of mankind through local or supra-local manifestations. Although he rules the realm of death, he is nevertheless regarded as the source of life, fertility, health and prosperity. There are also stories about manifestations of God in which he shares the experience of suffering with human beings. The main Toba Batak community rituals in pre-colonial times were addressed to a manifestation of the High God.

Hunter-Gatherers and the Origins of Religion.

Recent studies of the evolution of religion have revealed the cognitive underpinnings of belief in supernatural agents, the role of ritual in promoting cooperation, and the contribution of morally punishing high gods to the growth and stabilization of human society. The universality of religion across human society points to a deep evolutionary past. However, specific traits of nascent religiosity, and the sequence in which they emerged, have remained unknown. Here we reconstruct the evolution of religious beliefs and behaviors in early modern humans using a global sample of hunter-gatherers and seven traits describing hunter-gatherer religiosity: animism, belief in an afterlife, shamanism, ancestor worship, high gods, and worship of ancestors or high gods who are active in human affairs. We reconstruct ancestral character states using a time-calibrated supertree based on published phylogenetic trees and linguistic classification and then test for correlated evolution between the characters and for the direction of cultural change. Results indicate that the oldest trait of religion, present in the most recent common ancestor of present-day hunter-gatherers, was animism, in agreement with long-standing beliefs about the fundamental role of this trait. Belief in an afterlife emerged, followed by shamanism and ancestor worship. Ancestor spirits or high gods who are active in human affairs were absent in early humans, suggesting a deep history for the egalitarian nature of hunter-gatherer societies. There is a significant positive relationship between most characters investigated, but the trait “high gods” stands apart, suggesting that belief in a single creator deity can emerge in a society regardless of other aspects of its religion.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12110-016-9260-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A Review of Similarities between Hakim Tirmizi and Ibn Arabi, with Regard to the Issue of wilayat (authority)

Wilayat (authority) is one of the most important issues in theoretical Sufism. The main reason for dealing with this epistemic issue in Islamic mysticism is perhaps rooted in Islamic texts, especially the Quran, which has led to numerous interpretations and views provided by commentators. In the meantime, the mystical interpretations have had a significant role in changing the meaning and concept of the term and in proposing various discussions in this regard. Among these views, it can be referred to the view of Hakim Tirmizi, Iranian Sufi in the fifth century and that of Ibn Arabi, the founder of theoretical Sufism in the seventh century. The importance of the discussion lies in the fact that there are significant doctrinal and rhetorical similarities between these two famous Sufis, such that the influence of Tirmizi's view on Ibn Arabi cannot be ignored or denied. Proposing the theory of the need for wilayat (authority) and wali (religious authority), the concept of preference of wilayat over prophecy, the characteristics of true wali of the Most High God, and finally the concept and instance of seal of wilayat and seal of prophecy are among the key issues related to wilayat. The present paper seeks to study these issues from the view of Tirmizi and Ibn Arabi's views due to their particular importance in order to find their views and refer to their doctrinal similarities.

Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia.

Supernatural belief presents an explanatory challenge to evolutionary theorists-it is both costly and prevalent. One influential functional explanation claims that the imagined threat of supernatural punishment can suppress selfishness and enhance cooperation. Specifically, morally concerned supreme deities or 'moralizing high gods' have been argued to reduce free-riding in large social groups, enabling believers to build the kind of complex societies that define modern humanity. Previous cross-cultural studies claiming to support the MHG hypothesis rely on correlational analyses only and do not correct for the statistical non-independence of sampled cultures. Here we use a Bayesian phylogenetic approach with a sample of 96 Austronesian cultures to test the MHG hypothesis as well as an alternative supernatural punishment hypothesis that allows punishment by a broad range of moralizing agents. We find evidence that broad supernatural punishment drives political complexity, whereas MHGs follow political complexity. We suggest that the concept of MHGs diffused as part of a suite of traits arising from cultural exchange between complex societies. Our results show the power of phylogenetic methods to address long-standing debates about the origins and functions of religion in human society.

The ecology of religious beliefs.

Although ecological forces are known to shape the expression of sociality across a broad range of biological taxa, their role in shaping human behavior is currently disputed. Both comparative and experimental evidence indicate that beliefs in moralizing high gods promote cooperation among humans, a behavioral attribute known to correlate with environmental harshness in nonhuman animals. Here we combine fine-grained bioclimatic data with the latest statistical tools from ecology and the social sciences to evaluate the potential effects of environmental forces, language history, and culture on the global distribution of belief in moralizing high gods (n = 583 societies). After simultaneously accounting for potential nonindependence among societies because of shared ancestry and cultural diffusion, we find that these beliefs are more prevalent among societies that inhabit poorer environments and are more prone to ecological duress. In addition, we find that these beliefs are more likely in politically complex societies that recognize rights to movable property. Overall, our multimodel inference approach predicts the global distribution of beliefs in moralizing high gods with an accuracy of 91%, and estimates the relative importance of different potential mechanisms by which this spatial pattern may have arisen. The emerging picture is neither one of pure cultural transmission nor of simple ecological determinism, but rather a complex mixture of social, cultural, and environmental influences. Our methods and findings provide a blueprint for how the increasing wealth of ecological, linguistic, and historical data can be leveraged to understand the forces that have shaped the behavior of our own species.

Supernatural monitoring and sanctioning in community-based resource management

Cooperation in human societies is difficult to sustain if mechanisms are not in place to monitor behavior and sanction transgressions. Unfortunately, these mechanisms constitute second-order public goods that are vulnerable to freeriding. Religion has been proposed to solve this problem by shifting these burdens to the realm of the supernatural. However, very little research has been done to examine the specific content of beliefs in supernatural monitoring and sanctions within real world cooperative contexts. To help fill this void and to better understand the role these institutions may have played in the development of prosociality, we performed a meta-analysis of case studies (N = 48) in which religion played some role in community-based resource management (CBRM). Our findings suggest that beliefs in supernatural enforcement are common features of CBRM and that these duties are ascribed to entities ranging from ancestral spirits to gods. The specific sanctions believed to be imposed for violating rules are varied, but most often represent common occurrences that are readily open to interpretation as indications of supernatural efficacy. We propose that the provincial quality of the supernatural entities associated with CBRM may limit the scale at which they can promote prosociality and we discuss the implications this may have for the evolution of high gods.

대순진리회 상제관 연구 서설 (Ⅱ): 15신위와 양위상제를 중심으로

This article as an attempt to analyze Jin-beop-joo(眞法呪, incantation of true law) and the view of Yang-wui Sangje(兩位上帝, Sangje in two Godship) corresponds to the second preliminary work prior to the research on the view of Sangje in Daesoonjinrihoe. The points of this article are as follows: First, Jin-beop-joo and 15 Godship(神位) based hereupon are one of the most essential elements comprising the view of Sangje in Daesoonjinrihoe. Since the other Jeungsan line religious orders except Daesoonjinrihoe does not use 15 Godship in explaining and understanding Jeungsan, this fact should be regarded as an important characteristic of Daesoonjinrihoe. Second, 15 Godship is the important installation to assemble Sangje and the other gods in the same place. In Buddhism temples and China-Taoism temples, the gods each are placed in a separate palace. Whereas Sangje and the gods are concentrated in the same place, Yound-Dae(靈臺) which is the shrine of Daesoonjinrihoe. This fact shows Sangje takes the reins to the gods visually. 15 Godship facilitates that system. Third, the number 15 of 15 Godship symbolizes the natural laws of the cosmos. Thus the shrine of Daesoonjinrihoe implies the law of universe emblematically. Forth, 15 Godship shows that the Highest God in Daesoonjinrihoe are located in the middle of the functional gods ruling over nature like mountain, sea, season, the Great Dipper, and Taoistic or Buddhistic gods like Ok-hwang Sangje(玉皇上帝, The Great Jade Emperor), Seoga-Yeorae(釋迦如來, Tathāgata Buddha), Kwan-seong-Jegoon(關聖帝君, Holy god Guan Yu), along with various envoys and ancestral gods. Besides, considering the fact that the majority of 15 Godship consists of the Eastern deities, it verifies the view of Sangje in Daesoonjinrihoe is built in the Eastern religions. Fifth, whereas the other Jeungsan line religious orders have a tendency of understanding Jeungsan as Ok-hwang Sangje, Daesoonjinrihoe worships Jeungsan as Gu-cheon Sangje(九天上帝), not as Ok-hwang Sangje. This accords with the following fact; Jeungsan is the highest ruling entity in Gu-cheon, whereas in Jinbeonju, which was handed down from Jeungsan, the highest ruling entitiy in Gu-cheon is expressed as a different being from Ok-hwang Sangje. Sixth, Daesoonjinrihoe understands Sangje as the form of two Godship, Yang-wui Sangje, which are Gu-cheon Sangje and Ok-hwang Sangje. Judging from the form of salutation, the status of these two Sangjes are the same. Yet, the object of belief is Gu-cheon Sangje as the highest God, while Ok-hwang Sangje is stipulated as the one who has wielded a true law succeeding to the Gu-cheon Sangje

Oscar Wilde and Ancient Greece by Iain Ross

BOOK REVIEWS 247 the idea of Middle Platonism as simply a stepping-stone to Neoplatonism (231– 41, esp. 236). Van Nuffelen’s presentation of the texts is accurate, and his erudition is tremendous (apparently overlooked, though, are Dawson (cited above), J. Moles’ 1987 JHS article on Dio, and M. Smith’s skepticism about the authenticity of On Superstition, while D. Richter’s views about On Isis (56, note 48) deserved more discussion (see now his Cosmopolis (New York and Oxford, 2011) 207–229)). Nonetheless, has he drawn the lines too clean? Were Plutarch and some others reallysearchingfortruthinforeignreligions?Alternatively,weretheyofferingtheir readers through them, philosophical coherence and a higher morality and spirituality (cf. P. Athanassiadi and C. Macris, “Les mutations religieuses dans l’Empire romain,” in C. Bonnet and L. Bricault, eds., Les mutations religieuses dans l’Empire romain (Leiden and Boston, 2013, forthcoming))? Was the “divine hierarchy” as neat as Van Nuffelen suggests? Here, he seems to glide without warning between henotheistic and monotheistic descriptions, mostly henotheistic. Sometimes he leaves us in the dark about the “highest god,” especially when treating the Stoics and Plutarch. For example (169–170, note 55), the “highest god” in On the E at Delphi (392A-394A) and On Isis (383A) seems to be a henotheistic god. But Plutarch surely is describing his Middle Platonic God of which the henotheistic god is but an image. Nonetheless, this is an excellent, insightful, and fascinating study. Even those who are not philosopherswill be able to extractmuch truth. FREDERICK E.BRENK Pontifical Biblical Institute,Rome,fbrenk@jesuitswisprov.org * * * * * Oscar Wilde and Ancient Greece. By IAIN ROSS. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Pp. xv +274. Hardcover,$99.00. ISBN 978-1-107-02032-0. The exploration of Greek antiquity, in termsofboth literarytextsand archaeological remains, profoundly influenced the governing classes and intellectual elite of nineteenth century Britain. Seeing themselves as the heirs to Hellenic tradition, classically educated gentlemen felt an affinity between themselves and the Greeks 248 BOOK REVIEWS and considered fifth century Athenian society to be a prefiguration of their own.1 However, the popularization ofarchaeological science in the 1870s created a tensionbetweentheancienttexts ,whichinspiredidealizedfictionsaboutthepast,and material culture, which presented scholars with snapshots of ancient realities that were less fanciful and more concrete in nature. The writings of Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) engaged with both forms of evidence and thereby embodied the late nineteenth centuryconflictbetween text andmaterial culture.2 Oscar Wilde experienced ancient Greek literature and material culture through the lenses of specific institutions and texts. By examining Wilde’s written work and the formative events of his life, Ross aims to discern the ways in which Wilde’s personal brand ofHellenism was shaped bythese guiding influences. The first three chapters present an “intellectual biography” (5) of Wilde, drawing on a variety of sources, including unpublished annotated manuscripts. In particular, Chapter 1 is an account of Wilde’s education and his only trip to Greece, while Chapter2discusseshisearlywritings.Chapter3covershischartermembershipin theHellenicSocietyandemphasizeshisadvocacyfortheuseofarchaeologyinthe arts,especiallyasanaidinreconstructionsoftheancientGreekworld.Inthischapter , however, the author identifies a watershed shift circa 1886 as Wilde abruptly rejects the positivism and popularism associated with archaeology and adopts insteadanappropriative ,anachronisticattitudetowardancienttexts.Tosupportthis claim, the fourth chapter posits intertextual interpretations of Wilde’s mature works, including The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Soul of Man, “The Importance of Being Earnest” and De Profundis. The book concludes with Appendices A–G, which contain Wilde’s syllabi from Trinity College in Dublin and Magdalen College in Oxford, notes from histrip to Greece and exercisesin Greek composition. Ross’ examination of Wilde’s life and literary works provides uswith a deeper, intellectual portrait of this notorious historical personage. In Wilde’s writings, Ross discerns allusions to Plato, Aristotle and Menander and argues that he used Greek sources in both conscious and unconscious ways. For example, in addition to the direct allusions to Plato made in The Picture of Dorian Gray, there were also unconscious allusions as the text takes on new meaning when read within the 1 Theseminalworksonthissubject includeJenkyns,R. 1980.The VictoriansandAncientGreece. Oxford:Blackwell;Turner, F.M. 1981.The Greek Heritage inVictorianBritain.NewHaven:YaleUniversity Press. 2 For recent biographies of Oscar Wilde, see McKenna, N. 2005. The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde: AnIntimateBiography.NewYork:BasicBooks;Wright,T.2008.HowReadingDefinedtheLifeofOscar Wilde...

Subsistence and the Evolution of Religion

We present a cross-cultural analysis showing that the presence of an active or moral High God in societies varies generally along a continuum from lesser to greater technological complexity and subsistence productivity. Foragers are least likely to have High Gods. Horticulturalists and agriculturalists are more likely. Pastoralists are most likely, though they are less easily positioned along the productivity continuum. We suggest that belief in moral High Gods was fostered by emerging leaders in societies dependent on resources that were difficult to manage and defend without group cooperation. These leaders used the concept of a supernatural moral enforcer to manipulate others into cooperating, which resulted in greater productivity. Reproductive success would accrue most to such leaders, but the average reproductive success of all individuals in the society would also increase with greater productivity. Supernatural enforcement of moral codes maintained social cohesion and allowed for further population growth, giving one society an advantage in competition with others.

Predictive factors on the receipt and completion of adjuvant chemotherapy in a mixed sociodemographic cohort of patients.

6137 Background: African Americans are more likely to die from breast, colon and lung cancer compared to whites. They are also less likely to receive and complete recommended therapy. The reasons for this are unknown. Methods: Breast, colon, and lung cancer patients eligible for adjuvant chemotherapy (stage IB-III breast, stage IIB-III colon, and Stage IB, II lung) and who received surgery at 2 urban medical centers, were approached between 2008 and 2010 and completed a self-administered survey focusing on sociodemographic factors, including social support, anxiety, depression, co-morbidities, trust and God Locus of Control (e.g., Whatever happens to my cancer is God’s will). These variables were related to receipt and completion of chemotherapy. 191 patients were approached, 161 consented and 30 refused (16%); out of the 161, 23 were deemed ineligible because of previous cancers, non-curative stage or receipt of chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant setting. Results: Final sample consisted of 138 pts. Median age: 54; sex:81% F; Race/Ethnicity:47% AA, 38% white, 9% Hispanic, 6% Asian/PI; Cancer Type: 73% Breast, 21% Colon, 6% Lung. Compared to whites, AA were more likely to have incomes<20K (35% vs. 10%, p=.0002), have any comorbidities (80% vs. 57%, p=0.006), and have high levels of God Locus of Control (56% vs 27%, p=0.003). There were no differences by race in chemotherapy receipt (89% vs. 88%) or relative dose intensity (RDI) of chemo>=85% (58% vs. 67%). No factor in our model predicted chemotherapy receipt or RDI at a significant level. Pts with high God Locus of Control were somewhat more likely to start chemotherapy (OR 1.7, p=0.25) but were less likely to complete therapy (OR 0.55, p=0.19). The magnitude of these relationships held after controlling for age, race, comorbidities, cancer type, functional status, and social support. Conclusions: In a mixed sociodemographic cohort of patients, receipt and completion of adjuvant chemotherapy was similar by measured sociodemographic variables. Only high God Locus of Control was suggestive of being less likely to complete chemotherapy. Further attention and research on the role of religious beliefs in the cancer decision making process is warranted.

Response to Kelly James Clark and Justin T. Winslett, "The Evolutionary Psychology of Chinese Religion: Pre-Qin High Gods as Punishers and Rewarders" 79/4: 928-960

Response to Kelly James Clark and Justin T. Winslett, "The Evolutionary Psychology of Chinese Religion: Pre-Qin High Gods as Punishers and Rewarders" 79/4: 928-960

Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Transformation of Divine Simplicity by Andrew Radde-Gallwitz

BOOK REVIEWS 145 arguments concerning them, and thereby gives an indication of a “style” of thinking that underlies those arguments. FREDERICK CHRISTIAN BAUERSCHMIDT Loyola University Maryland Baltimore, Maryland Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Transformation of Divine Simplicity. By ANDREW RADDE-GALLWITZ. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Pp. 272. $100.00 (cloth) ISBN: 978-0-19-957411-7. Divine simplicity has long been a contested issue. Although there are powerful reasons for concluding that God is in some way preeminently simple, there are also serious difficulties in doing so, among them that of understanding how a perfectly simple God could possess what at least seem to be a multitude of properties. The book under review examines some of the earliest attempts to deal with this issue. Although its primary focus is on Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, there are also substantive discussions of Ptolemaeus Gnosticus (a second-century critic of Marcion), Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Athanasius, and Eunomius. It exhibits a high level of scholarship and is often helpful on points of detail. Nonetheless, the book’s fundamental line of interpretation seems to me to be mistaken. I will first summarize the main outlines of this interpretation and then offer a criticism of a central point. The author observes, rightly enough, that the philosophical context for the earliest Christian discussions of divine simplicity was supplied by Middle Platonism. The Middle Platonists distinguished sharply between the highest, unknowable God and a lower, demiurgic God who in some obscure way derives from the first. The highest God is wholly simple, unknowable, and not directly engaged in the world; the second God is simple only in relation to creatures, but can be known via nous (the faculty of pure intellectual apprehension) and is, in at least some versions, identical to Plato’s realm of the Forms. Christians found this fundamental scheme appealing as a way to understand the relationship between God the Father and the Logos, and versions of it are to be found in Ptolemaeus, Clement, and Origen. A second sort of answer to the problem of divine simplicity began to emerge in the theology of Athanasius. Athanasius was an early advocate of what RaddeGallwitz calls the identity thesis, the claim that divine simplicity is best understood as implying the identity of the divine essence and attributes. Admittedly Athanasius does not state this thesis categorically, but he does assert BOOK REVIEWS 146 that God has no accidents or “essential complements” and hence that terms such as ‘God’ and ‘Father’ must name the divine essence itself. This notion was picked up by Eunomius, who saw (as Athanasius had not) that it could be used to support Arianism. For Eunomius, ingeneracy is, as it were, the master divine attribute to which all others are equivalent; and since the Son is not ingenerate, he cannot be God. The essential contribution of Basil and Gregory, according to Radde-Gallwitz, consisted in finding a way to understand divine simplicity that requires neither the identity thesis nor the radical apophaticism of the Middle Platonists. Both of these views have at their root what Radde-Gallwitz calls the thesis of the epistemological priority of definition, the idea (found most obviously in Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics) that knowing an entity requires knowing its definition. Basil and Gregory, by contrast, recognize that there can be knowledge of the divine substance or essence (ousia) that is not in any way tantamount to a definition. What can be known are the divine “propria,” distinguishing characteristics such as light, wisdom, power, life, truth, goodness, and incorruptibility that are coextensive with and intrinsic to the divine essence but do not, either individually or collectively, constitute its definition. This use of the term ‘proprium’ (Greek idiÇma or idiot‘s) may be a bit confusing because in Aristotelian logic a proprium is a property that follows directly from the definition of a substance, as, for example, having interior angles that add up to 180 degrees follows from the definition of a triangle. Basil and Gregory do not claim to know the definition of the divine substance, and so make no claim regarding whether the propria follow from it. Their position is simply...

Platinum Nanoparticle Modified Polyaniline-Functionalized Boron Nitride Nanotubes for Amperometric Glucose Enzyme Biosensor

A novel amperometric biosensor based on the BNNTs-Pani-Pt hybrids with Pt nanoparticle homogeneously decorated on polyaniline (Pani)-wrapped boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), was developed. It is shown that π interactions take place between BNNTs and polyaniline (Pani) located at N atoms from BNNTs and C atoms from Pani, resulting in the water solubility for the Pani wrapped BNNTs hybrids. The developed glucose biosensor displayed high sensitivity and stability, good reproducibility, anti-interference ability, especially excellent acid stability and heat resistance. The resulted BNNTs-Pani-Pt hybrid amperometric glucose biosensor exhibited a fast response time (within 3 s) and a linear calibration range from 0.01 to 5.5 mM with a high sensitivity and low detection limit of 19.02 mA M(-1) cm(-2) and 0.18 μM glucose (S/N = 3). Surprisedly, the relative activity of the GC/BNNTs-Pani-Pt-GOD electrode keeps almost no change in a range from pH 3 to 7. Futhermore, the BNNTs-Pani-Pt hybrid biosensor maintains a high GOD enzymatic activity even at a relatively high temperature of 60 °C. This might be attributed to the effect of electrostatic field and hydrophobia of BNNTs. The unique acid stability and heat resistance of this sensor indicate great promising application in numerous industrial and biotechnological operations involving harsh conditions.

The Evolutionary Psychology of Chinese Religion: Pre-Qin High Gods as Punishers and Rewarders

Scholarship on religion in Early China (pre-220 BCE) has been predominantly concerned with the issue of ritual and has tended to be more concerned with placing this within the framework of Chinese history than that of religious studies. As such, other topics, such as deities, have either been neglected or subject to untested claims—often that deities do not exist and that Early China represents an atheist society, an argument that makes little sense in light of contemporary scholarship on religion in the field of cognitive science. This paper addresses the issue of deities in Early China by looking at how the High Deities of Early Chinese societies are represented in pre-Qin (pre-221 BCE) texts through statistical analysis of the corpus of texts and close readings of selected passages featuring High Deities. This paper shows that in contrast to some earlier appraisals of an absence of such agents, these texts are rife with depictions of the High Deities, and that they are often represented as moralizing agents that punish vice and reward virtue in others, something that is argued to be expected in evolutionary psychology.

Supernatural punishment and individual social compliance across cultures

Cooperation for the public good is vulnerable to exploitation by free-riders because it always pays individuals to exploit the social contract for their own benefit. This problem can be resolved if free-riders are punished, but punishment is itself a public good subject to free-riding. The fear of supernatural punishment hypothesis (FSPH) proposes that belief in supernatural punishment might offer a solution to this problem by deflecting the cost of punishment onto supernatural forces and thereby incentivizing cooperation. FSPH is supported empirically by ethnographic data, but this work has so far focused on (1) institutional cooperative traits which may not reflect individual choices on how to behave in everyday social interactions and (2) threat of punishment from all-powerful moralizing high gods rather than other agents capable of supernatural punishment. Here, we consider the FSPH using variables which are linked to individual interaction and expand the number of variables measuring belief in different forms of supernatural punishment. Our findings do not fit these more general FSPH predictions. We suggest there may be something special about the link between moralizing high gods and institutional enforcement of cooperation that is not captured by these other variables.

The Religion of the Qur’ānic Pagans: God and the Lesser Deities

AbstractThis article (in two parts) is devoted to the first step of an attempted reconstruction of the religion of the Qur’ānic mušrikūn on the basis of the Qur’ān and indisputably earlier evidence alone. The first part concludes that the mušrikūn believed in the same Biblical God as the messenger and that their lesser beings, indiscriminately called gods and angels, functioned much like (dead) saints in later Islam and Christianity. This is not exactly new since it is more or less what Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhāb concluded three hundred years ago. The second part examines the high God hypothesis and tries to relate the beliefs of the mušrikūn to those of other monotheists in late antiquity, with indeterminate results: in terms of their views on God and the lesser beings, the mušrikūn could equally well be pagan monotheists and Jews (or Judaisers).