Why did I write Faith and Physics?

Because the voices in my head told me to do so.

I realize that this isn't a statement that establishes an immediate sense of credibility, but I can think of no more accurate way to characterize the situation. Note that I am not claiming that the origin of these voices is external to my 'self', whatever that elusive container might represent, nor am I denying the possibility that they are. The notion of attributing one side of this dialog to some external entity (i.e. the Deity) seems at once patently obvious and wildly pretentious. In the end, the distinction is moot--the content must stand or fail on its own merit. After all, gibberish is gibberish, regardless of its origin.

I have read, with a general sense of skepticism, a number of books on 'new-age spirituality'. The first question I ask (suspicious soul that I am) regards motivation: Sitting pretty now that you've published your little book, aren't you? What were you doing before? Watching daytime TV? Reading the tabloids? Are you financially better off than you were before writing this wonderful guide to spiritual fulfillment?

While this is probably an unfair criteria for judgment, I will nonetheless answer it for my own circumstance: When I started writing this (about 7 years ago), I had just ended my second year as part owner of a small but successful technical consultancy. I had closed out both 1997 and 1998 with a six-figure income, and was reasonably secure in my ability to continue this trend. In short, there was no way that writing something of this nature could possibly serve to further my personal interests, either professional or artistic.

So why do it? Well, that brings us back to my initial assertion; I really didn't feel that I had any choice in the matter.

Actually, I spent several years sidestepped the task of transcribing "The Voices in My Head," as I had begun to think of it, and applied myself to my consulting business. There would be, after all, ample time to consider writing a philosophical treatise later, once my business was firmly established.

Then, bad things started happening to me.

It's funny (well, not really) how, in the beginning, when everything in my life seemed to be going almost miraculously right, I was capable of attributing events to the notion that I had somehow aligned myself with Divine Will. But then, when things started going wrong, I was all but oblivious to the connection.

The details are really irrelevant, and I'll not bore you with them here. Suffice it to say that I am now firmly convinced that we all have a particular task in this life, and only by aligning ourselves with this purpose will fortune finally smile upon us.