Is God’s Benevolence Impartial?

In this paper I consider the intuitive idea that God is fair and does not play favorites. This belief appears to be held by many theists. I will call it the Principle of Impartial Benevolence (PIB) and put it as follows: As much as possible, for all persons, God equally promotes the good and equally prevents the bad. I begin with the conviction that there is a prima facie tension between PIB and the disparity of human suffering. My aim in what follows is to clarify this tension and show that it runs deep. More specifically, I will argue that PIB imposes stringent demands—including a patient-centered theodicy—on the sorts of reasons that would justify God in permitting suffering, and, that the historical disparity of suffering indicates that these demands are not met. I conclude that theists should disavow PIB or at least consider it sub judice

\u3ci\u3eTomicus Piniperda\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) Reproduction and Behavior on Scotch Pine Christmas Trees Taken Indoors

Tomicus piniperda, the pine shoot beetle, is an exotic insect that was first found in North America in 1992. A federal quarantine currently restricts movement of pine products, including Christmas trees, from infested to uninfested counties. We conducted a study to determine if T. piniperda would re- produce in Christmas trees that were cut and taken indoors during the Christmas season. Twelve Scotch pine, Pinus sylvestris, Christmas trees infested with overwintering T. piniperda beetles were cut in Indiana in early December 1993 and taken to Michigan. Four trees were dissected immediately, while the other 8 trees were taken indoors, placed in tree stands, and watered regularly. After 4 weeks indoors, 4 trees were dissected, and the other 4 were placed outdoors in Michigan for 7 weeks. Upon dissection, all overwintering sites occurred along the lower trunk within the first 40 em of the soil line; 81% were found within 10 em of the soil line. Adults collected from the 4 trees dissected in December produced viable progeny adults when placed on Scotch pine logs in the laboratory. Overwintering beetles became active and laid eggs in 4 of the 8 trees that had been taken indoors. All adults and progeny found in the 4 trees that had been placed outdoors for 7 weeks during cold January and February temperatures were dead. Overall, T. piniperda can become active and breed in Christmas trees that are cut and taken indoors in December. Tomicus piniperda survival in trees that are discarded outdoors at the end of the Christmas season will depend largely on the prevailing temperatures

Combinatorial Information Theory: I. Philosophical Basis of Cross-Entropy and Entropy

This study critically analyses the information-theoretic, axiomatic and combinatorial philosophical bases of the entropy and cross-entropy concepts. The combinatorial basis is shown to be the most fundamental (most primitive) of these three bases, since it gives (i) a derivation for the Kullback-Leibler cross-entropy and Shannon entropy functions, as simplified forms of the multinomial distribution subject to the Stirling approximation; (ii) an explanation for the need to maximize entropy (or minimize cross-entropy) to find the most probable realization; and (iii) new, generalized definitions of entropy and cross-entropy - supersets of the Boltzmann principle - applicable to non-multinomial systems. The combinatorial basis is therefore of much broader scope, with far greater power of application, than the information-theoretic and axiomatic bases. The generalized definitions underpin a new discipline of ``{\it combinatorial information theory}'', for the analysis of probabilistic systems of any type. Jaynes' generic formulation of statistical mechanics for multinomial systems is re-examined in light of the combinatorial approach. (abbreviated abstract)Comment: 45 pp; 1 figure; REVTex; updated version 5 (incremental changes