Career
Gates"s books tend to focus on subjects on which matters of history and science converge with matters of philosophy, religion, and epistemology. Gates"s first book, (2003), traces the nature of the work day from the prehistoric hunter-gatherer to the modern day citizen whose specialized tasks, such as designing video games or working on an assembly line, may seem to have less of a direct link to providing for survival. The book examines how this transformation occurred, and takes a philosophical look at the varied reasons why people do what they do for a living, which include the pursuit of wealth and status to the pursuit of personal fulfillment, inner calling, and spiritual happiness.
In this book, Gates traces the link between the work of the two eras, and suggests a guideline for an “alternative measure of success”.
In 2006, it was reissued as Hunting, Gathering, and Videogames. Gates is also the author of, described as a Socratic dialogue between a hypothetical Christian proselytizer named Chris Proselman (a play on the word proselytize) and a skeptic named Scott Crates (a play on the name Socrates).
In the exchange, the skeptic does not dispute the idea of a Creator, but instead accepts the premise of a Creator for the sake of argument. The conversation then turns to examining the Christian religion by the same light held up to the non-Christian.
