About the Author

Personal & Professional History

I was raised by my parents in Clarksville, Tennessee, and I have two siblings. I lived in Clarksville until I was 23, attending a small, private school until after 11^th grade. I attended and graduated from Clarksville High School, senior year, and  went to college at Austin Peay State University (B.A. – Philosophy; minor – International Studies). I worked my way through the last two years of high school and all of college at a variety of jobs, all of which taught me valuable life lessons, though they were rarely jobs one might consider “desirable,” and none of which were in any way prestigious.

In the Spring of 2005, I reconnected with a friend I had known in my sophomore year of high school. She and I had met through mutual friends – one of her friends was dating one of my friends, at the time – and we had lost touch over the years. We got reacquainted and fell in love. A year and a half later, we were married.

When I graduated from college, my wife and I moved to the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill “Triangle” area of North Carolina to pursue a M.Div. degree in Apologetics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest.

After a year of study at the seminary, I took a step back from academia to reevaluate my priorities. I worked for two years as a Leasing Consultant for Altman Management Company in Cary, NC. After working there for about 18 months, I decided to attend law school, and began preparing for the LSAT. I applied to several schools, and decided to attend Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, passing up a scholarship to St. Mary’s University, in San Antonio, TX, to do so.

I am currently studying at Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in preparation for a career in law and public service.

Faith & Religion

I believe that science engages human beings in their quest to find appropriate questions to ask of the universe, but falls short in bringing us fulfilling answers to our existential queries. While science can help us to refine the questions we ask, it fails, ultimately, to provide us with fulfillment in our search for meaning, value and purpose in our lives.

It is for this reason, that I believe faith is so crucial to the human experience. Whether you have faith in a God or in the notion of the absence of any god, you have faith, all the same, for there is no compelling evidence for or against the existence of God. Faith manifests itself in many forms, the most familiar of which are the various religions of the world. I was raised in the Christian tradition, and that tradition has shaped my views on many moral and social issues, but I do not ascribe, fully, to all the tenets of the Christian faith.

I am a Biblical Theist™. That is, I believe that the Bible is true – literally true, in part, and true, in part, in the sense that it imparts divine truths through an appropriate reading and interpretation of its passages – and I believe that there is a God that created the universe and all of humanity in order to have a relationship with each of us. I believe in the necessity of free will, and I reject evangelical fundamentalism as intrinsically flawed. I believe in divine revelation, but I believe this is rarely, if ever, applicable to the circumstances of daily life. Rather, I believe divine revelation is nearly always given in regard to the way in which we should live our lives, which can be concisely summed up thusly: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.

When it comes to matters of religion, I believe that understanding what God is not is more important than defining what God is. This, to my mind, is the fundamental difference between Biblical Theism and Christianity. Christianity is a religion that seeks to define God, or at least, our relationship with Him, whereas Biblical Theism™ accepts a degree of spiritual skepticism, and emphasizes only what is necessary to fulfill man’s purpose of having a relationship with his Creator. In more vulgar terms, Biblical Theism™ is a kind of Zen Christianity™.

Interests

I have a wide variety of interests from Apologetics to Video Games, but primarily it is easiest to get me fired up over social, cultural or political issues. My degree, as I mentioned above, is in philosophy, so I value the notion that ideas have consequences – a concept thoroughly explored in a book of the same name by Richard M. Weaver – and I believe those consequences usually manifest themselves in fads and trends in the social, cultural and political forums of our day. Those that prevail – along with many of the more notable failures – end up in history books. So, history is also an interesting topic, for me.

When it comes to entertainment, I like things that engage my imagination. I like science-fiction, yes, but I also enjoy reading about probability mechanics and futurology, although I am skeptical, to say the least, about most of it. It’s just fun to think, “What if…”

The list of things I’m not interested in is probably a lot shorter than the list of things I am interested in, but, mainly, I’m obsessed with philosophy, social issues, politics and culture.

Views on Society, Culture & Politics

I am a traditionalist, and I am a constitutional originalist. I espouse, mainly, Judeo-Christian values as my own, but I value truth and the pursuit of it above all else. Humility and honesty, I believe, are the two traits that, if one pursues them, will lead to a virtuous life. Because of this, I haven’t much affinity for modern liberalism or the cultural trends that have sprouted from it.

With regard to social issues, I prefer a live-and-let-live policy towards those with whom I disagree ideologically, as long as they do not represent a threat to others. Society is much improved when comprised of the widest variety of persons possible, without that variety contributing to destabilization of the whole.

As with regard to politics, I believe that a small government that maximizes the liberty of the individual is the best bulwark a population can have to secure both protection and freedom for itself. I am a free-market capitalist, and I believe that Coasian economic theory guides most, if not all, rational economic, political and personal actions.

Without launching into a full-scale treatise on politics, that should give you a clear enough picture on where I stand, politically, but I caution you not to make any assumptions. I don’t just parrot talking heads; I always think an issue through for myself, often coming to similar conclusions as some of the popular political commentators, but sometimes for different reasons, which is, among other things, something that makes this blog interesting, I think.