1. Scientific Evidence in relation to Religious Experience and Miracle

2. William James William James was a psychologist and a physician
A scientific method was used to investigate the actuality of Religious Experiences, as well as their outcomes
In The Will to Believe, James mentions that a chemist finds a hypothesis to be worthy enough to spend a year searching for its verification. He believes it to some extent  The same can potentially be said for those that have a religious experience.
While James began his mission on trying to explain Religious Experiences scientifically, after quickly realising he couldn’t, he then looked at explaining Religious Experiences Pragmatically

3. Potential Challenges to RE via Scientific Explanation
Religious experience could be a result of a repressed or perverted sexuality  Consider Sigmund Freud to help address this concept of finding God due to a sexual impulse (Oedipus Complex)
Religious experience could happen as a result of a mental illness, drug use, or alcohol use
Many Religious Experiences seem to have something in common – many people “find God” at low points in their life when they’ve turned to drugs or alcohol

4. Challenges Continued…
Medical Materialism is when a religion or experience is rejected due the origin of the religion or the experience being reduced to something simple and potentially irrelevant
William James coined this term
For example, Medical Materialist would say that St. Paul’s vision – on the road to Damascus – was nothing more than a lesion of the occipital cortex
For example, Medical Materialist would reject the Quaker religion, because its founder, George Fox, was schizophrenic
In general, Medical Materialism would simply undermine any spiritual authority

5. Challenges Continued
A Conversion experience is said to be when God reveals himself to someone and they go through an adjustment period to adapt a new belief
However, conversion could be understood psychologically – as a person with a troubled mind or a lost mind may be searching and trying to find answers in life
Furthermore, Lofland and Stark ( ) noticed all conversion experiences they looked at are a result of patterns and their environment (financial situation, relationships, physical activity and lack thereof). Particularly, Lofland and Stark emphasised feelings of deprivation, frustration, and tension.
Therefore, the experience itself may originate inside the person, as opposed to being a work of God – and this can greatly affect the validity of a religious experience.