A California neurosurgeon who died from lung cancer in 2015 explained in a memoir published this year what it was that compelled him to reclaim his Christian faith after embracing "ironclad atheism."

Dr. Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon at Stanford's Department of Neurosurgery and a fellow at the Stanford Neurosciences Institute, died on March 9, 2015, after fighting a two-year battle with stage IV lung cancer.

Being an educated man who graduated from the Yale School of Medicine, Kalanithi earned a master's in English literature from Stanford and earned master's in history and philosophy of science and medicine from Cambridge, Kalanithi was considered to be a deep thinker who constantly pondered how "biology, literature and philosophy intersect."

Despite the fact that Kalanithi had high career aspirations laid out for himself once he graduated from residency, the ladder to achieve his career goals was ripped out from underneath him when his life was cut short.

Although God called home the 37-year-old Kalanithi while he was in the prime of his career, death did not come before Kalanithi was able to achieve one of his life's aspirations: becoming a writer.

While dealing with his illness, Kalanithi penned a memoir that focused on the meaning of life and death and also addressed other existential questions that his sickness forced him to wrestle with.

Although cancer took Kalanithi before he was able to complete his memoir, it turns out that what he had written was enough to be published posthumously in the form of The New York Times best-selling book, When Breath Becomes Air.

Continue reading: Stanford Neurosurgeon Killed by Cancer Accepted Christ After Embracing 'Ironclad Atheism'