About

The life of Dr. Clayton Hess MD MPH, is a synthesis of science, faith, and service. He is an advocate of a Codeism-based world view and is founding Elder of the Church of Faith and Reason because there was no other existing group able to provide the scientific but faithful approach he and his family needed to graft reasoned spirituality from the roots of his Mormon heritage.

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History of Codeism

Dr. Hess is a board-certified radiation oncologist, small business owner, physician scientist, entrepreneur, researcher, and former academic faculty. With collegiate training in the humanities, English, the arts, graduate-level training in medicine, medical humanities, medical physics, radiation biology, epidemiology, and statistics, Dr. Hess created the structured philosophy of Codeism from his experience in theoretical physics, combined with professional work harnessing the power of our subatomic reality to fight cancer, and his lineage of faithful pioneers and builders of the American west. He is merely one who helps explain the understanding that nature, mathematics, and human history themselves present.

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History of Faith

Dr. Hess' life is a testament to his belief in the harmonious integration of empirical knowledge and spiritual conviction. Raised in the Mormon faith, his journey has been one of devout practice and leadership. Dr. Hess was ordained to the priesthood and set apart as an Elder of the LDS church in his youth, before leading a reformation movement in Sacramento, California in his late twenties, seeking to transparency of the Church's historical claims. This ordination is the reason he carries the title Elder - it was given him by the faith leaders of his pioneer heritage. His church service began as a missionary leader under Presidents Wes Greene and Ulisses Soares in Northern Portugal. He rose quickly in mission leadership from new arrival to immediate trainer to district leader, straight to assistant to the president, traveling and supervising over one hundred missionaries. At Utah's Missionary Training Center after he returned home, he was hired for his teaching prowess and passion, became a beloved teacher, and rose in rank to district leader among all Portuguese-language instructors. He married 4 months after returning from Europe, served in ecclesiastical positions including Sunday School and Elders Quorum presidencies, and Bishopric Clerk and built the foundations of faith for a family of 5 beautiful children.

 

History of Doubt
In 2012, while meeting alongside his fellow congregational leaders, he encountered troubling realities about LDS church history and truth claims, which dramatically set his life course into conflict. After ten years filled with cancer research, scientific publications, and work as a physician-scientist, his secular views, conflict, disbelief, and familial upheaval gave way to a new vision of both physics and faith. The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was a decisive turning point that opened up new levels of faith and the understandings that came line upon line, now taught as Codeism. This Nobel Prize was awarded to three physicists, Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger, for experimentation confirming the existence of entangled particles and non-locality. This new understanding led to Dr. Hess trailblazing a path to restored faith after secularism based on a new understanding of the quantum testing ground of life. His journey required the application of faith combined with reason, which he invites you to also consider -- to hear about both faith and reason, and to ponder, and consider for yourself and your family . His commitment to family is profound, being a sacrificing father (now of six), and a devoted husband who leads his family grounded on the principles of Faith and Reason.

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History of Reason​

Dr. Hess's academic and professional path is as lengthy as it is varied. He completed his education at Brigham Young University, where he graduated Cum Laude. He is trained and licensed as licentiates of the healing arts. He obtained his medical degree at Penn State University where he was funded for clinical trial research assessing and tracking treatment-related psychological distress and received the Spieth Award for Excellence in Oncology. This was followed by an internship at the University of Texas at Austin, and residency training at the University of California, Davis where he published broadly and became Chief Resident. He completed a visiting residency rotation at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital pursuing a passion in the fight against childhood cancer. His pursuit of excellence led him to a specialized 2-year fellowship in childhood malignancies and proton therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also engaged in neuro-oncology research studying circulating tumor cells and tumor DNA in childhood brain tumor patients under a prestigious NIH K-12 grant. His academic rigor was further honed with a Master of Public Health awarded from Harvard University, focusing on clinical effectiveness and statistics. Dr. Hess then worked in Exeter, New Hampshire as an attending physician in the now Mass General Brigham system before holding faculty appointment at Emory University, where he treated head and neck cancers and explored public health innovations in inner city Atlanta, as well as the immunological effects of radiation. His innovative spirit was evident during the global health crisis when he led a clinical trial on low-dose radiation for severe COVID-19 symptoms. Now based in Northern California, he co-founded CureRays Radiation Medicine and continues to lead in radiation oncology, blending his roles as a clinician, physician, researcher, and community leader, all underpinned by his mission to advance patient care through science and compassion. Dr. Hess is founder, president, and medical director of a medical group practice headquartered in Grass Valley, California aimed at keeping cancer away. He is a proud and well-published scientist, author, and NIH- and industry-sponsored medical researcher. 

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History of Trailblazing

Dr. Hess' commitment to truth and knowledge catalyzed high conflict within his Mormon community and his multi-generational family and heritage of founding pioneers and apostles. He is proud of the efforts of his Mormon Battalion, trailblazing, and way-finding forefathers and 8 generations of mainly immigrant English-American and German-American families who built life intentionally wherever and whenever they could. He sees that others too lead lives of excellence through striving within their own heritages and legacies of faith and reason.​​ 

 

Message

We can find faith after doubt using physics as a foothold. Learning the scientific underpinnings of our pixelated reality support the assertion that our lives have an audience. Accepting that your life has onlookers and is a testing period give life new significance. ​Life itself can be lived like a Faireatale -- well written and well lived.​ Come write your life story using both Faith and Reason. 

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Life is an encoded, pixelated, recorded test.

Life is a simulation run on laws of physics and faith comprising the Code of God.

The Code of God was woven into every faith, culture, life, and people.

Live by the timeless truths of God's Code of Conduct.

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Dr. Hess is married to Sarah Hess, a past church elder herself of the Presbyterian heritage, corporate professional and daughter of hard-working immigrant Korean-Americans, who built a beautiful life through faith, reason, and talent. They are parents of a blended family of 6 children and reside in the San Francisco Bay Area, Marin County, where the Church of Faith and Reason was founded and holds services in San Rafael, California.

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