Author Guest Post - Chet Galaska

Today, I would like to welcome Chet Galaska, author of Finding Faith in a Skeptical World. Thank you so much, Mr. Galaska, for taking the time to stop by and sharing with us with a wonderful post! If you haven't checked out Mr. Galaska's book, Finding Faith in a Skeptical World, please be sure to do so!

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As a person who didn’t believe in anything spiritual, I surprised myself when I was in my fifties and found faith. My book, Finding Faith in a Skeptical World, explains the many issues that had me convinced of the truth of atheism and how I found this lack of faith to be incorrect.
I began delving into this after my physician asked me to attend a class he taught about handling stress through faith. The things he taught made sense, caused me to question my skepticism, and set me on a path to find out what was true and what wasn’t.

The answers surprised me and gradually made the case for faith.

But the effort involved in finding them made it clear that a book like Finding Faith would be a tremendous help for others in cutting through the static and learning what Christianity is about. It took several years of gleaning information from lots of sources before I could write with confidence. Each chapter was done as a discrete piece and the subjects were researched as each chapter was written. Once the facts were in hand, my adventure in writing started.
This is my first book and writing it was different from the writing for business purposes I was used to. 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 concepts that sometimes seem more difficult than they really are. It was also important to present them in a 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.

I learned that the key to a tight manuscript isn’t the original draft: it’s in re-writing, over and over. But once a chapter’s been improved to the point where you can’t see anything else to be done – and you’re happy with the result – you’re rewarded with a feeling of satisfaction that only another writer can appreciate.

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A bit about Finding Faith in a Skeptical World:

Chet Galaska was an atheist who became a Christian in his early fifties. It took several years of learning about the faith for him to shed his skepticism and become a believer.

Finding Faith in a Skeptical World covers subjects that once stood between him and faith. As he searched, he found that his skepticism was based on shallow perceptions he’d accepted at face value. One by one, troublesome issues were explained and they became reasons for belief instead of doubt.

It was as though he had a scale, with reasons for skepticism on one side and reasons for belief on the other. When he started, there was far more weight on the "skeptical" side, but it gradually shifted and became counterweight on the "belief" side. Eventually, the evidence for faith far outweighed the arguments for disbelief, and the case for faith became overwhelming.

Some chapters deal with matters of faith such as prayer, redemption, salvation and sin. Others address issues like Christian hypocrisy, why bad things happen, miracles, Satan and the Christian view of war. Some are about the seemingly contradictory relationship between science and religion that are discussed in chapters on scientific perception, creation and evolution. Other subjects like the sometimes violent and cruel history of Christianity, "Born Agains" and the Christian view of the Jewish people don’t fit neatly into any category. The common denominator is that each addresses an issue that can be misunderstood and create a distorted, negative view of the faith.

The book was written with the intent of providing brief shortcuts for curious unbelievers, those seeking faith, those new to it, and for Christians who may not be familiar with some of the ideas covered. The author realized that a book like this would have been valuable in helping him come to faith. Since none was available, he wrote Finding Faith in a Skeptical World to share the things he learned in a reader-friendly, direct and concise way.

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A bit about Chet Galaska:

C. William "Chet" Galaska was born in 1951. He began his college education at Drew University in Madison, NJ and graduated from the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. He co-founded a company that grew into a multi-million dollar enterprise and was its President for 24 years. He also served as Chairman of the New England Chapter of the American Foundry Society. In 2003 he sold his interest in the company and now invests in real estate.

Chet is a former unbeliever who became a Christian after years of investigating the faith with an open mind. His first book, Finding Faith in a Skeptical World, is a down-to-earth explanation of what he learned. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Massachusetts. They have two grown sons, Jon and Drew.

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Excerpt from Finding Faith in a Skeptical World:

Spirituality - especially Christian spirituality — is disdained by those who don’t understand it and refuse to even try. This bias can cause skeptics to dismiss the idea that God is the creator out of hand. But there are many scientists with open minds who see the Mind of God in the workings of creation and who have come to faith because of it. In fact, a survey of biologists, physicists and mathematicians found that about 40% "believed in a God who actively communicates with humankind and to whom one may pray."22 Unfortunately, they don’t get attention like the cynics and we’re given the false perception that the scientific community is universally skeptical about the existence of God.

In the end, whether science proves God’s existence depends on who is viewing the evidence. Even those who rely solely on empirical evidence but who have open minds, like Albert Einstein, see God. Those who close off God up front don’t see him because they refuse to. In TV programs, textbooks, museums, the media in general, and other politically correct venues,23 the central player in all of existence is missing. And by this absence we’re given the subtle, false message that science has determined God isn’t necessary and doesn’t exist.

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Win Prizes!

WIN PRIZES!!THE FINDING FAITH IN A SKEPTICAL WORLD VIRTUAL BLOG TOUR '09 will officially begin on April 1 and end on May 29. You can visit Chet's blog stops at www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com in April and May to find out more about this talented author!

As a special promotion for all our authors, Pump Up Your Book Promotion is giving away a FREE virtual book tour to a published author or a $50 Amazon gift certificate to those not published who comments on our authors' blog stops. More prizes will be announced as they become available.