Here I am!

' "Hi, Sam! How's it going?" That's how it started. The first of the strange messages. Someone was getting at my new computer. A hacker? He called himself I Am. It must be a joke; no one could be called I Am! He seemed to know everything about me; nothing escaped him. He claimed to know everything - even about the future. He said he was everywhere - even inside me! Then there were the journeys: dream-like trips into outer space and back in time. I couldn't help myself; I felt I was being hypnotized - drawn through the computer screen into the world's beyond. And what was it all for? He said we were finding out what life was all about - playing with the BIG questions...'

Sam didn't think much of religion. What with science being able to explain almost everything about us and the world we live in, there didn't seem much point in believing in God anymore. And, besides, if there was a God who cared about us, there wouldn't be suffering and poverty and war, would there?

Russel Stannard doesn't believe it's quite that straightforward. In Here I Am! he asks and explores questions that could lead to a greater understanding of religious belief in the modern world.

Russell Stannard is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the Open University. He has travelled widely in Europe and the USA, researching high energy nuclear physics. He has received the Templeton UK project award and spent a year in America as a visiting fellow at the Center of Theological Theory, Princeton. He was awarded an OBE for services to physics and the popularisation of science. Married with four children of his own and three stepchildren, he vividly remembers the excitement of discovering Einstein's theories for the first time and he is dedicated to passing this inspiration on to new generations. The Time and Space of Uncle Albert was shortlisted for both the Science Award and the Whitbread Award, and his books have been translated into seventeen different languages.