by Kenneth Francis (November 2025)
“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” –Matthew 21:22. But, for the agnostic and/or those weak in the Faith, ‘whatever you ask for’ and receiving it, entails anything morally good and within reason, as well as a person being genuine in seeking faith.
Speaking of Faith: I enjoy reading famous quotes and the best ones are usually found in the Bible. But recently I heard an amazing quote by one of the world’s distinguished neuroscientists, brain surgeon Dr Michael Egnor, when he appeared on the Ex-Skeptic podcast.
In the podcast, Jana Harmon interviews former atheists and encourages both skeptics and Christians to consider what motivates thoughtful, intelligent people to move from disbelief to belief in God.
According to the Discovery Institute’s Mind Matters magazine (not to be confused by other magazines of the same name), Dr Egnor spent decades trusting science to answer life’s deepest questions. As a neurosurgeon and professor, he believed the brain held the key to understanding everything—including who we are.
However, over time, he encountered some things science could not explain: Children thriving with missing brain structures; moral truths that couldn’t be reduced to biology, and a growing realisation that materialism had serious gaps.
During the podcast talk, Dr Egnor said that when his youngest son was a baby, he wasn’t smiling, making eye-contact, or interacting with other people. Dr Egnor, who was an atheist at the time, was concerned that his baby might be autistic.
It got to the point where he believed his own child did not know he existed. He said: “This terrified me, the idea that my son, who I love, wouldn’t really know me or be able to love me.”
He added that, emotionally, it was hard for him to even go to work. Then one night while working in a Catholic hospital, his mind was pre-occupied with worrying about his son. But as he was leaving the hospital, he noticed a little chapel. He went in and knelt in front of the alter to pray. He said: “God, I don’t know if you exist, I have my doubts. But if you do exist, this is something that I can’t handle; something I can’t do on my own. I can’t have a son who doesn’t know me. Then, I heard a voice—the only time in my life I heard a voice [like that] —and the voice said, ‘But that’s what you’re doing to me.’ Then I collapsed on the altar, and when I got my senses back, I said, well I won’t do it to you anymore. Please heal my son.”
The next day, he called the local Catholic church enquiring when he could be baptised. A couple of days later, he had his son’s six-month-old birthday party, and at the party the child was completely normal; he was smiling and making eye-contact like a normal kid. Never underestimate the power of prayer.
A similar thing happened, by proxy of a concerned family, to world-famous Irish heart surgeon, the late Dr Maurice Neligan, who died in 2010. He told the story of a dying patient he was treating and the power of prayer. (I think before the incident, Dr Neligan said he did not have strong faith in the existence in God.)
Anyhow, the patient, who was in a coma, with appalling heart/organ conditions, was put onto a ventilator.
The family of the patient refused to switch off life-support. They asked Dr Neligan if there was a little church in the hospital where they could say the Rosary. After saying a few decades of the Rosary, the patient woke up, and later left the hospital a healthy person. This pleasantly shocked the team of doctors. It was many years ago, that I heard Dr Neligan telling this story on a radio show as I drove home from work one night.
Then there is the conversion story of acclaimed sci-fi writer, John C Wright. Wright, cited a profound religious experience at age 42, with visions of the Virgin Mary, her son, and His Father—not to mention various other spirits over a period of several days—and stated that prayers he made were answered. In 2008, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, of which he approvingly said: “If Vulcans had a church, they’d be Catholics.”
I think Mr Wright is right, as I’m sure Mr Spock would have relatively made a more rational pope by adhering to dogma than the clerics of recent times. Finally, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” —Psalm 46:1.
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Kenneth Francis is a Contributing Editor at New English Review. For the past 30 years, he has worked as an editor in various publications, as well as a university lecturer in journalism. He also holds an MA in Theology and is the author of The Little Book of God, Mind, Cosmos and Truth, The Terror of Existence: From Ecclesiastes to Theatre of the Absurd (with Theodore Dalrymple), and Neither Trumpets Nor Violins (with Theodore Dalrymple and Samuel Hux). His most recent books are Theology in Music: How Christian Themes Permeate Classic Songs, Theology in Film: How Christian Themes Permeate Classic Movies, and Cities of the Absurd: Strange Tales from the Dark Metropolis.
Follow NER on Twitter @NERIconoclast
2 Responses
I reached out for help in my 30s. I never expected anything, but treated it like a scientific experiment. I’ve spent the years since trying reconcile science with belief. The simple answer, hiding in plain sight, is to realise that science is not materialism.
I’ve had many inexplicable experiences over the last 5 years or so. Two of them have rocked my world, and I wonder whether I am alone in having these. Anyway, here’s a little one but one I’m particularly fond of:
Some months ago, I was inexplicably overcome with the need to wear a cross. I can’t really explain it. I had an old piece of cheap gothic jewellery with a cross on it, so I put that on. It last only a couple of days before disintegrating on me. In response, I bought a cheap thing off Ebay for a couple of quid. It arrived and it too fell apart the moment I put it on.
So I said to God, “If you want me to wear a cross, then send one my way. I won’t go out and buy another.” And I did not contact the seller on Ebay.
Then, for no apparent reason, another one dropped through my door 5 days later without being ordered. So not I am not only wearing that right now, but I discovered this little church in an industrial unit 5 mins walk from me. So now I go there, and no one is more surprised about it than me. I understand that 13% of GenZ’ers are going to church regularly. This reverses the trend set by the boomers and my own gen-X.
These are incredible stories.