Scientists share extraordinary experiences that led them from atheism to belief in God

Many scientists are self-proclaimed atheists who believe that their fact-driven worlds don’t align with a belief in God.

Three scientists have opened up about the profound experiences that led them to merge spirituality with their professional lives.

One scientist discovered religion during her college years, while another, a psychiatrist with extensive training, became a believer after facing firsthand encounters with demonic entities.

Meanwhile, a grieving astrophysicist found comfort in God after the loss of her child.

Sarah Salviander, who grew up as an atheist, found faith when her daughter was born a stillborn. 

‘I bonded with Ellinor during that time. Sadly, though, what I had bonded with was a tiny, lifeless body,’ she said.

‘Grief does a lot to twist our thinking, and as awful and crazy as it sounds, I felt like it was my motherly duty to be buried with Ellinor.’

The scientist said it was the that saved her own life, as she came to believe that Ellinor would be parented by the Heavenly Father.

In her own words, Salviander shared how she found solace and liberation from despair by embracing the notion of a safe and loving afterlife where she would be reunited with loved ones in an environment of pure joy and peace.

Astrophysicist Sarah Salviander always knew she would be a space scientist – and then she found God after personal tragedy

The scientists’ stories are just some of the many accounts of individuals who have found their way to religious faith, according to the new book ‘Seeing the Supernatural’ by Lee Strobel.

Salviander once believed that Christianity made people ‘weak and foolish.’ However, an experience turned her world upside down.

While studying the Big Bang, she became awed by the order of the universe and began to entertain the idea of God’s existence.

‘Without knowing it, I was awakened to what Psalm 19 tells us so clearly: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands,” she said.

The astrophysicist then became convinced that the Bible’s account of creation was scientifically sound and developed an interest in the Gospels.

However, it was the loss of her daughter that truly cemented her faith. 

Sharon Dirckx, a neuroscientist, grew up aspiring to be a scientist. At age 17, she read a book by evolutionary scientist and atheist Richard Dawkins, which reinforced her agnostic beliefs.

‘I became convinced that a person couldn’t be a scientist and believe in God at the same time—that they were incompatible,’ Dirckx said.

Neuroscientist Sharon Dirckx grew up wanting to be a scientist and believed science and religion were incompatible

That changed at the University of Bristol when she attended a panel with Christians and asked whether science and faith were at odds.

‘They made the case that, of course, a person can be both a Christian and a scientist. It rocked my world,’ Dirckx explained.

She then spent 18 months investigating Christianity while continuing her studies in brain imaging.

Dirckx went on to conduct seven years of neuroimaging research at both the University of Oxford and the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

She now believes that Christianity and science can coexist—and, in fact, that both need each other.

‘The Bible says God has made himself known in two ways—through the natural revelation of the physical world and the special revelation of Scripture,’ Dirckx noted.

‘Science tells us a lot about the natural world, but we still need theology and philosophy to explore special revelation—the Scriptures—and to grapple with questions that science cannot answer. Questions like: Why can we think at all?’

Dirckx added that her own work in neuroimaging highlights why science alone cannot answer every question.

‘As a neuroscientist, I’ve measured the electrical activity of people’s brains, but I can’t measure their experience in the same way. I can’t quantify what’s in their minds or what it’s actually like to be them. Why not? Because the brain alone is not enough to explain the mind,’ she explained.

 Ivy League educated psychiatrist Richard Gallagher says he encountered ‘possessed’ patients and was even the victim of a demonic spell

In one of her books, Dirckx recounts the story of Pamela Reynolds, who suffered a severe brain hemorrhage due to an aneurysm in 1991.

During surgery, doctors cooled Reynolds’ body temperature, flatlined her heart, and drained blood from her brain.

When she was resuscitated, Reynolds claimed she had been conscious the entire time. Thousands of other patients have reported similar experiences—describing being clinically deceased and watching doctors resuscitate them from above—according to Dirckx.

‘It’s important to point out that recent discoveries in neuroscience are entirely compatible with the existence of God,’ the neuroscientist said.

‘In no way does any discovery in brain research rule out God. That would be a complete misunderstanding of the data. The best scientists always remain open to new ideas.’

Ivy League educated psychiatrist Richard Gallagher was trained in psychiatry at Yale University and in psychoanalysis at Columbia University.  

But he found God in the reality of Satan and demons after a chilling encounter with a ‘possessed’ woman. The night before he met her, his two cats began fighting.

‘Loud screeching sounds startled me and my wife out of our sleep. Our two normally docile cats were going at it like champion prizefighters, smacking and clawing at each other, intent on inflicting some serious harm,’ Dr Gallagher recounted.

He had a client named Julia the following day. She was a self-described priestess of a satanic cult and was accompanied by a catholic priest. 

Dr Gallagher said that when Julia arrived, she gave him a smirk and said, ‘How’d you like those cats last night?’

The meeting made the doctor believe that some of his patients may not be mentally ill but possessed by evil spirits.

‘To the untrained eye, many possessions may be thought to fall into the psychiatric categories of various psychoses and severe personality and dissociative disorders,’ Dr Gallagher said.

‘However, for well-trained psychiatrists and other health professionals, possessions differ from such disorders in significant ways.’