Welcome.
If you are here for the first time, chances are you found me thanks to The Untold Podcast, Pastor Nathan Norman’s site dedicated to speculative fiction from a Christian worldview. My story “Who argued for my soul?” went live as of 6AM EST, Oct 31, 2018.
So, today my website is being relaunched and – yes — I’m writing my first blog post ever.
By profession I’m an electrical engineer and professor. At heart I’m an applied physicist. Which means that my favorite question is, “Why?”, closely followed by, “How is it all connected?” Seeking to understand the connection between cause and effect and the unifying laws behind what we see, know, and measure is what drives my research. It also drives my writing.
My chosen field, electromagnetics, blossomed in the latter third of the 19th century and it is still today the foundation of all electrical engineering curricula. But it is more than that to me. To the great minds of that time, Science was not a vast field to be dissected into sub-disciplines only accessible to specialists. Rather it was the unified body of knowledge by which all of us, scientists and the lay public, could begin to understand the wonders of our universe and ultimately our purpose within it.
In his letter to the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol (22 Nov., 1876), James Clerk Maxwell, put it this way: “At the same time I think that each individual man should do all he can to impress his own mind with the extent, the order, and the unity of the universe, and should carry these ideas with him as he reads such passages as the 1st Chap. of the Ep. to Colossians … just as enlarged conceptions of the extent and unity of the world of life may be of service to us in reading Psalm viii.; Heb. ii. 6, etc.”
This integrative viewpoint permeates my work and my writing. On this website you will find some of my speculative fiction stories. Please feel free to browse around and comment or write questions as you wish.
In addition to talking about the stories and any news on upcoming stories, future blogposts will touch again on this subject of science and the human spirit, interspersed with comments on areas I have researched over the last 40+ years. These are things like, history and philosophy of science (specially on the transition from the 19th to the 20th century), non-spooky quantum mechanics, the life of an engineer, interesting science facts (in an exposition aimed at a general audience). And, yes, occasionally UFOs, Tesla, and other things Fortean.
Fell free to ask questions on any of the subjects touched upon. As Maxwell said:
“The Rule of the Plan is to let nothing be willfully left unexamined. Nothing is to be holy ground consecrated to Stationary Faith, whether positive or negative. All fallow land is to be ploughed up, and a regular system of rotation followed. All creatures as agents or patients are to be pressed into the service, which is never to be willingly suspended till nothing more remains to be done…”
Finally, given the mythology theme of the story “Who argued for my soul?” I leave you with these tidbits:
Overheard at a game of Jeopardy on Mount Olympus…
Personal appearance for $200
“Not Ordinary Dandruff”
What happens when Medusa’s snakes all moult at the same time?
A god’s best friends for $300
“Cuddly, fluffy and yaps in triplicate.”
What was Cerberus like as a puppy?
Famous comebacks for $1000
“Been there done that.”
What does Persephone say when someone tells her to go to hell?
