MORE;  Genesis;  The Slant;  Preface

Although a work of fiction, A Secret of the Universe was born of personal experience. Despite being a "successful" entrepreneur, corporate pilot, elected school official, consultant, and active churchgoer, by my late-thirties it became clear that Artemus Ward was right—sometimes it’s not what we know that can get us into trouble, it’s what we know that just isn’t so. With the black-and-white simplicity of young adulthood behind me, I set out on an intensive journey of inquiry and introspection. That effort led to a self-published “back-of-the-room” book called Truth-Driven Thinking, and reflexively compelled me to even greater levels of epistemological self-examination.

From there I had the opportunity to produce DVDs and multi-media interviews with several bestselling authors, scholars, theologians, and scientists. What soon became evident was the myriad ways in which our emotion-driven thinking, superstitions, and dogmatic adherence to foregone conclusions affect not only our personal lives, but the lives of those around us. Widely available in October of 2007, this new book uniquely explores both our compulsive need for answers, and the blind spots we create in the process of searching for elusive clarity.

Why fiction?

Plenty of formal, non-fiction works afford savvy readers the chance to examine widely held notions that are unsupported by science, reason or evidence. Volumes of great scholarly works have undermined astrology, psychic healing, faith-healing, haunted houses, superstition, dangerous diets, and even certain core tenets of dominant world religions. Yet somehow the world continues to exhibit clear signs of cognitive dissonance, acting and behaving as if critical thought should be relegated to the dry world of academia. I felt that it was time for a bold attempt to break down the wall between knowledge, belief and behavior. In real life, we compartmentalize. We scoff at other religions or fringe practices—privately dismissing them as wacky superstition—while displaying an unwillingness to acknowledge our own unsupportable beliefs. Through this disconnect we undervalue the impact of beliefs and world-views upon not only our personal lives, but upon the world around us as well.

History tells us that people learn best through entertaining and informative stories, particularly those that capture our imagination and are applicable to our own lives. With a careful eye toward balance, this book forces the reader through a real-world exploration of epistemology and philosophy, to illuminate the reality that beliefs and world-views dictate behaviors, and always produce consequences. The question is whether those consequences are intended, or unintended.

MORE;  Genesis;  The Slant;  Preface

Read excerpts using Google's "Book Search" service     Discussion Guide