Physicist Converts From Atheism to Judaism After 9/11 Out of Shame Over Ignorance

What was said

"I knew nothing about the religion that I was born into, and I felt ashamed. I couldn't read Hebrew, you know. I didn't— I never read the Bible, you know, the Old Testament. And I was like, why is there this antipathy towards Jews and towards Judeo-Christian society and civilization? Why is there this conflict? I knew nothing about it. And so I realized that I'd stopped all my learning when I was 13 about religion."

Keating described abandoning atheism at age 28 following the September 11 attacks, motivated not by spiritual revelation but intellectual embarrassment at his ignorance of Judaism. He spent years teaching himself Hebrew and Torah study, arguing that scientists who dismiss religion often do so from a 13-year-old's understanding, and that rigorous theological inquiry is compatible with scientific methodology.