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Sign up todayThe God Patent
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Learn moreWhen electrical engineers Ryan McNear and Foster Reed co-authored two patents for company cash incentives, they thought it was all just a joke. One described the soul as a software algorithm and the other described the Big Bang as a power generator.
But when the company crashes, McNear finds himself divorced, desperately hard-up, and estranged from his son. As he rebuilds his life, McNear discovers Reed has used their nonsensical patents to draw in top-tier energy investors. A patent war erupts, and McNear is suddenly immersed in something much bigger than a personal argument with his old friend: a battle between hard science and evangelical religion. To fix the mistakes of his past, he will have to risk everything—his reputation, his livelihood, and even his sanity—to be with the son he loves.
Set in the age-old culture war between science and religion, The God Patent is a modern story that deftly blends scientific theory with one man’s struggle to discover his soul.
Ransom Stephens is a former physics professor and fifth-generation Californian. After earning his PhD from the University of California–Santa Barbara, he taught at the University of Texas at Arlington and conducted cutting-edge research at high energy physics labs across the United States and Europe. He then moved into the high-tech arena, leaving academia to work for a wireless web start-up. He’s now a science writer and high-tech consultant living in Northern California’s Wine country, though he prefers beer. More about Stephens can be found at his website, http://www.ransomstephens.com.
Reviews
“Fueled by sex and drugs, quantum physics and artificial intelligence collide with faith and free will in a battle over the origin of the universe and the existence of the soul.” —lablit.com
“What distinguishes this classic battle between faith and free will is its unusually deft infusion of legitimate but accessible science…In a narrative that sings of the heart and the scientific method as two parts of the same song.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“The God Patent really drew me in, not just because of the hard-charging plot and the vivid characters but also because this story is wrapped around one of the central conflicts of our time: faith in science versus faith in religion. Ransom, to his credit, avoids easy or didactic answers. Instead he pulls readers into a dense and nuanced argument that leaves us buzzing with questions.” —Tamim Ansary, author of the bestsellers Games Without Rules and Destiny Disrupted
“This story of life, physics, and spirituality will blow your mind. You won’t put it down until the last page, and when you look up, you will see the world in a totally different way.” —Joe Quirk, author of bestselling novels The Ultimate Rush and Exult
“An aging physics professor at the University of Maryland, Bob Park in the novel, is a curmudgeon who writes a weekly column on science and society. That sounds like me all right, but then comes the fiction: he rouses the whole physics community into action. I wish. Beyond that it’s a sweet, sad story about people who seem very real, with a struggle between science and creationism in the background. Surely Emmy and Ryan will find each other again in a sequel. I read that too.” —Robert Park, author of the science bestsellers Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science and Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud
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