Can You Find Faith in a Skeptical World?

Joining us today is Chet Galaksa, author of Finding Faith in a Skeptical World. Chet is a former atheist who became a believer after many years of viewing faith with a skeptical, but open mind. We´ll talk to Chet about his debut release and what readers can find within its pages.

Thank you for joining us today, Chet. It is wonderful to have you here. Can you tell us a bit more about yourself?

I´ve been married to my wife, Lisa, for 32 years and we have two sons, Jon and Drew. Both are out on their own: Jon´s in management for an international company while Drew´s a physical education teacher in a public school.

I was raised in Western Massachusetts, where we have the bucolic Berkshire Mountains, the Connecticut River and the Basketball Hall of Fame. We don´t have metropolitan density, ocean beaches or Bostonian accents. I guess we do have at least one linguistic nuance, though: a former pastor of ours who came from the Midwest told us we say "barried" instead of "buh-reed" when we talk of interring someone´s body.

I was president of a company that melted high alloy metals and poured them to make castings for use in heavy industrial applications. In 2003 I changed careers to invest in real estate. And write. Finding Faith in a Skeptical World is my first book and it explains the things I learned in making the journey from atheism to faith.

Before you had your life-changing experience, had you ever had the desire to become a writer?

As far as "becoming a writer" is concerned, my time was consumed in running the company and raising a family so I never thought about it. Besides, I didn´t have anything compelling to write about.

You´ve spent many years in the business world. How is your writing different from what you´ve done in the past? And how is it similar?

Business writing is tight, concise, unemotional, to the point, hopefully persuasive, and utilitarian. It´s as though Sgt. Joe Friday from Dragnet was the recipient and he wanted "Just the facts, Ma´am."

Writing for an audience is different because it´s important to make the subject matter interesting to read. A lot of thought was devoted to beginning each chapter with an introduction that would grab the reader´s attention. I also tried to make the writing something the reader would want to read by using examples from everyday life to illustrate religious concepts that sometimes seem more difficult than they really are. It was also important to present them in a straightforward non-pedantic way (am I being pedantic by using the word "pedantic"?). So the writing is different because there´s an entertainment factor that´s not needed, or even appreciated, in business writing.

At the same time, it´s still important to be tight, concise and to the point in order to maintain brevity and ensure that the basic concepts don´t get lost in excess verbiage.

Tell us about Finding Faith in a Skeptical World. Where did the inspiration for this book come from?

Many people come to Christian faith at one discrete point of time, like the people who come forward in a Billy Graham crusade. There are Christians I know who are like this and can tell you exactly the time and circumstances when their conversion happened.

It wasn´t like that for me. I believed Christianity was just a comfort for weak people and I had no interest in pursuing it. My curiosity was aroused by someone I respected: my physician, whom I had known for twenty years before he asked me to attend a Sunday school class he taught.

I attended the class out of curiosity and not because I was seeking faith. But the things that were taught made sense, and I decided to look into the faith further. I approached it in a logical manner and took the issues I had with Christianity one by one. And one by one, as I gained understanding, they became reasons for faith rather than doubt. I became a Christian gradually over several years, and discovered that when I received Christ I was given a peace I had never experienced before. But it wasn´t a "eureka!" moment. It was more of a realization that the scales had tipped from against faith to for faith and I found that I had become a believer quite quietly.

If this happened to me it could happen to anyone. The changes it brings – peace, the perspective that eternal life brings to our struggles, forgiveness and a positive framework for living – improve life immensely. Christianity is a rich faith with plenty of objective reasons to believe. The reality of Christ is my inspiration to introduce others to him and to help Christians understand their faith a little better by covering topics they may not be familiar with.

Going from an atheist to a believer who writes a book about faith is a big jump. Did you have moments when you felt unqualified to write about topics that many people, including believers, have struggled with for years?

The short answer is "no."

Finding Faith is the result of my search for answers, and each chapter was written after I felt I had a satisfactory understanding of the issue at hand. One advantage I have is that I´m not a theologian or philosopher so my mind isn´t occupied with deep arguments over issues that aren´t central to faith. And these differences are what can make Christian faith seem difficult to understand, especially since what most people observe is indecipherable disagreement.

Regardless of church or denomination, all Christians must have certain core beliefs. It´s like an onion: at the heart we must all agree that Jesus was the Son of God, he died, rose from the dead, and did so to atone for our individual sins. Once you get past this, issues that separate the various branches of Christianity come into play and the further away from the heart of the onion you get, the less important – and more contentious - the issues are.

Finding Faith stays close to the heart, where Christian beliefs of all stripes converge. Since these basic beliefs aren´t questionable, it´s possible to distill them and explain them in ways that are applicable to the vast majority of Christians.

In seeking answers I sometimes read books written by theologians and found that they were impossible for a layman (or at least for me) to understand. But faith was meant for everyone, not just those with the ability and interest to debate arcane subjects. I don´t pretend to understand those things, but I do know what our basic beliefs are and feel I can convey them clearly.

What are a few of the topics covered in your book?

There are 27 chapters, and each covers a different subject. Some are on matters of faith like prayer, redemption, salvation and forgiveness. Others cover hypocrisy, why bad things happen, miracles and the Christian view of war. The seemingly contradictory relationship between science and faith are discussed in scientific perception, creation and evolution. Chapters on "born agains" and the Jewish people don´t fit into any category except that they´re subjects that can be misunderstood and misrepresent the Christian faith.

What makes your book different than other books out there?

Finding Faith covers a wide variety of topics that could be the focus of entire books in themselves. In fact, there are books written about each of them. This book covers them in brief, understandable chapters that explain the essence of each issue. They´re all topics that kept me from faith until I researched them, so the common denominator is that I encountered each of them at some point and asked myself, "What´s up with that?" and then sought the answers.

I don´t believe there´s another book like it. I know, because I looked for one and, if I had found it, I would have bought it. Finding Faith,/i> was written to fill that need.

If a person only had time for one chapter of your book, which would you suggest he read?

Chapter 7, Redemption and Salvation. It explains Jesus´s perfect sacrifice, the history behind it, and the fact that if a person believes in Christ they can spend eternity in heaven regardless of their previous sins.

Where can readers purchase a copy of Finding Faith in a Skeptical World?

Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, findingfaith.us or order from any bookstore.

Do you have a website or blog?

Website: www.findingfaith.us

Blog: http://triadpress.blogspot.com/

What is up next for you?

I´m pretty well tapped out between the real estate business and promoting Finding Faith in a Skeptical World. My plan is to book speaking engagements at various churches regardless of denomination, since the message is universal and of value to any church I´m aware of. I´m hoping churches will use me as an outreach program to bring in people who have questions about faith and to answer questions about God that Christians may have.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I came to faith after absorbing all the anti-God, anti-Christian messages we´re subjected to, pushed them aside, and looked at faith with an open mind. Once you eliminate the distractions, faith becomes not only possible but practically inevitable. My hope is that others will find faith, and experience how much better life is once they put their lives into perspective and experience the peace Christian faith offers.