Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

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The idea for Calculating God has been in my head since 1983. I was 23, an atheist with a freshly minted degree in broadcasting, when a coalition of faith groups applying to the Canadian government for a broadcasting license hired me as their staff writer.

And I had one of those "the world is more complex than I thought" revelations that are so common at that age. I'd assumed the I'd be dealing with fools comforting themselves with simplistic stories. But I was wrong. The people I met were witty, intelligent, wise, funny (sometimes profanely so), and well-read. I realized that belief in God was something many very bright people felt strongly.

Over the intervening years, I found many other people I greatly admired — mainstream cosmologists, physicists, even evolutionists — talking about intelligent design, and the evidence they saw for a creator. And as I read, and thought, and grew, Calculating God took shape. When I finally did come to set it down on paper, I wrote it faster than any book I'd ever done — it was clearly ready to be born. I'm delighted (and, frankly, a bit surprised) that such a personal work has been so popular.

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