How can one convince atheists who dismiss prayer experiences as psychology?

Personal experiences explain why you yourself believe, but they rarely convince others. It is better to speak with reasons and to ask the atheist questions they must answer themselves, for example how something as complex as the human brain could have come about without a conscious Creator.

Many believers have experienced a prayer being answered. For them it is a strong sign. But whoever tells an atheist about it only explains why they themselves believe. It does not tell the other person why they should believe. On top of that, a great deal of fraud is carried out in the name of spirituality. Many people are therefore rightly cautious when they hear of miraculous experiences.

A better way is a conversation based on reasons. The Holy Qur’an itself offers many ways of showing God's existence through reason. Anyone speaking with atheists should first know these ways well. Often it helps more to ask questions than to offer answers.

An example from the world of computers shows how this can work. No computer comes into being by itself, not even over an unimaginably long time. It needs someone who designs it, builds it and operates it. A computer has no consciousness and no self. It understands nothing beyond what has been fed into it. The human brain, however, is incomparably more complex than any computer. How could it have come about bit by bit without any conscious planning? And who operates this computer in our head, if not a conscious self that is more than the brain itself?

Materialism has no convincing answer to such questions. They need not be asked aggressively, but calmly and with respect, as the first verse above teaches. Asking questions invites the other person to think for themselves.

Nor are all atheists the same. Some think philosophically, others scientifically, economically or politically. Each deserves an answer in the area that truly moves them.