When Science and Faith Collide: The Biologist Who Sees Hashem's Hand

About ten years ago, a groundbreaking article on the 'Origin of Life' was published, exploring how inanimate material transforms into a living cell. Essentially, all living creatures are born from lifeless matter – from food, chemicals, etc. How do the substances entering the body create life? The researcher, Jeremy England, from the prestigious MIT, presented a complex and ingenious theory called Dissipative adaptation. Senior researchers who had puzzled over this for years were excited by the discovery. One of them was Richard Dawkins, a famous atheist, who proclaimed that atheism and evolution now had substantial research support. What Dawkins didn’t know was that the researcher, Jeremy England, is a religious Jew, wearing a kippah...

In interviews, Jeremy England shares that in his research on the origin of life, he sees only the hand of the Creator. His role as a researcher is to explain how life is created chemically and molecularly, but what allows this is solely a sophisticated mechanism created by the Creator of the world.

More intriguingly, England is not a researcher from a religious home who held onto his kippah simply due to a good upbringing. On the contrary, England was born into a secular home. Beyond Chanukah candles, he didn’t know much about Judaism. It was through his research that he concluded there is a Creator of the world. His urge to learn about Judaism was further ignited by the anti-Semitism he inevitably encountered within the walls of prestigious universities. If they hate us with irrational hatred, there must be something to fear, and something to investigate... England traveled to Israel, met with Torah scholars, studied Torah in a yeshiva, and found truth. In an interview, he stated, "Studying Torah provided me with an intellectual engagement unlike anything I had experienced in terms of sharpness and breadth of scope," a testament from a brilliant researcher at one of the world’s leading universities.

When asked if his research contradicts his faith, he responded, "I see no problem in being a 'scientist,' while having a commitment to Hashem and the Torah. I’m even willing to go further and say those who find tension between them need to better understand either the Torah or science, or both." These insights are known to us, but it’s always good to hear them again from a great scientist, teaching us that true research can indeed show this.

England further shared about himself: "It was when I was in Jerusalem. I started to think about what I’d do at MIT. Then I realized what drove me to ponder physics and biology were issues in the philosophy of language, located right in the first verses of Genesis: 'And Hashem said, Let there be light.' Creation is driven by statements, by the power of language. One needs to decide on a language to explain the world.

"Then, later in Genesis, in the story of the Tower of Babel, Hashem decides that humanity should have many languages. Meaning, there isn’t just one way to understand the world. You can find this understanding in Wittgenstein too, which clearly stems from its Jewish roots: 'The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.'

"This entire understanding planted in me the notion that biology and physics are two different languages. Therefore, it surprises me to see biophysicists confused about this. They expect physics to tell them what life is. It’s like reading a novel in French and expecting it to suddenly be in ancient Greek. You can translate the novel – but then the power of understanding shifts to the translator’s hands.

"When I visited Israel for the first time and began learning Hebrew, I felt a powerful sense of coming home and discovering who my people are... But I always had a tendency to deeply understand things, which led me to realize I need to know more about the Torah, as it’s undoubtedly always been a part of Jewish existence – even if many Jews are not religious. I quickly realized how deeply Jewish my worldview was in ways I hadn’t previously grasped, and I discovered the intellectual depth in this tradition that I hadn’t found in my studies of science, mathematics, philosophy, or literature. This made me want more...

"What I loved about the Torah is its openness on this matter. Unlike people who try to hide arbitrariness in their choices, the Torah presents itself to Jews as a covenant. I decided to commit to our side of the covenant and see if Hashem upholds His part... Thank Hashem I feel He has kept His side and amazed me with His wonders. His impact on my life is clear to me in a way I would never try to prove to someone else. Today, I channel my efforts to better understand His desires and seek His help in doing so...

"Here’s something you’ll find in Psalms: 'There is no speech and there are no words; their voice is not heard.' The world is filled with things we haven’t measured. When we measured the electron’s charge – we discovered part of the Creator’s work...

"When you talk about the providence of a nation and individual providence – you will only find them if you seek them. What was the miracle of Purim? That the greatest empire in the world decided to destroy a small, scattered, and weak people, and did not succeed in doing so. The entire story of the Book of Esther is a sequence of deliberate acts, except for Haman’s lot. Haman's lot fell on the month of Nissan, giving the Jews almost a year to prepare for their demise. The lot could have fallen on an earlier month. So, when we talk about providence, one must seek it out, as our lives are not an experiment."