I’m so glad that Brian Keating and Jeremy England — two wonderful Jewish physicists, both religious believers and brilliant writers — got together on Dr. Keating’s Into the Impossible podcast to talk about Dr. England’s new book, Every Life Is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things. As I hoped, they weren’t shy about talking not just about science but about faith and about Judaism. England, who is also an ordained Orthodox rabbi, has a subtle way in his religious thinking, which I’m not sure I yet fully grasp. I appreciate his point at the end, though, about Moses’ staff and its transformation into a serpent and how that relates to seeing the world scientifically.
This long conversation (1 hour and 48 minutes) would bear watching more than once. I would say the last 48 minutes or so are the most compelling as England talks about his own spiritual journey, the reason for his “tending to reject” arguments for intelligent design, and more. He has engaged in a thoughtful and respectful dialogue with our physicist colleague Brian Miller, and Professor Keating has interacted in a warm and fascinating podcast with Stephen Meyer about Meyer’s Return of the God Hypothesis. Does “thermodynamics explain the origins of living things”? Dr. Miller has explained why he disagrees with Jeremy England on that point. Now what I’d love to see is Meyer in the same room, or on the same podcast, with England. Perhaps Brian Keating would consider hosting the conversation. 😉