Finally, A Blog of My Own

So I finally broke down and signed up for a blog. I don't know who will ever read it, but it don't matter. It'll be fun to post some random stuff to the web, since I can't ever seem to get my website off the ground.

Obviously, I'm a physicist. I just finished my first two semesters of graduate school at Washington State University and am starting my first summer of research at the Institute for Shock Physics. My grand plan is to get out of Pullman in no more than five years with a Ph.D. in physics. It's gonna be a long haul, but I'm going to do my best to pull it off. I received my B.S. degree in physics from Seattle Pacific University, a small Christian university. Which brings me to my second point: I'm a Christian. In short I am convicted that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, lived a sinless life, bore the punishment for my sins by dying on the cross and rising again and by His grace alone, I am saved. People ask me what denomination I belong to but I never have a short answer for them. Basically I'm a Christian; more specifically I interpret the Bible rather literally, I agree with John Calvin and think that Christianity should mold the culture, not the other way around. When I was in Seattle I attended Mars Hill Church, which I miss a lot. I haven't found a church home yet in Pullman that is a perfect fit, but I'm still looking.

Because I am both a Christian and a physicist, I find the interface between science and religion fascinating. People often think that acceptance of one excludes the other. I disagree, in fact, it is my faith as a Christian that nurtured my interest in science. Nature is also part of God's revelation of Himself to humanity. The revelation of nature is not the special revelation of scripture, but a general revelation. For me, being able to study the world that God made around me is another way for me to learn more about Him. This is a point that I think a lot of Christians miss. It's easy to get worked up over the theory of evolution or the big bang theory and discount the whole of science. We must be critical of the constructs of man, but be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And scientists aren't innocent either in their view of religion. I think I've gone on long enough about this, but I hope I've started to make my point: I can still be a Christian and a physicist without bending over backwards.

Anyway, that's a little about me. I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing with this blog. Maybe a little philosophical discussion like above. Maybe I'll post my progress on my research in the lab. Or maybe I'll have something interesting to say about a book I'm reading or a computer problem I'm working on. I know you can't wait for my next update, poor reader, whoever you are.