Challenges from science and counter-arguments from religion

• Sigmund Freud 


  Freud was a materialist. Religion is a psychological illness - a neurosis. Religious people seek a father figure because of the Oedipus Complex. The aim of psychoanalysis was to outgrow religious belief. Religious experience is illusory wish fulfilment. Teresa of Avila's experience of the dart of love would be seen by Freudian as the product of repressed sexuality
• Ramchandran 


  Did experiments to discover that patients with TLE are far more prone to religious experiences. This shows that religious experiences may be caused by an external factor like God or the Holy Spirit
• Persigners God helmet

  Religious experiences are no more than the brain reacting to the external stimuli. Persigner developed a helmet with weak magnetic fields which induces experiences similar to religious experiences.