More broadly, historically, all critical methodologies confronting religious expressions have demeaned them as being false both factually, and causally. In time, the entailments and operational processes of the universe being understood as governed by laws, deterministic, and existing apart from the universe, and outside of human existence, thought, and action, not only stripped away theological concepts of inspiration and revelation, but jettisoned the idea of freedom both in the universe and human action.

Religion as an Art Form

The universe became a machine; humans were deprived of consciousness, free-will, self-identity, and the values associated with emotive expressions. With respect to reality these were illusory. In a sense humans were dehumanized. Quantum physics claimed reality was dependent on measurements made by a conscious observer, and the uncertainty principle offered a degree of freedom in the world; but the element of conscious observation altering the world was considered, to some, suspect. 

Religion as an Art Form: Cognitive Science

Presently, largely due to the rise of the cognitive sciences, non-Cartesian linguistics, and a few theoretical scientists, laws are considered to be embodied expressions, their existence inseparable from their environments, and themselves responsible to a kind of prior causation, even acausation. The cognitive sciences have demonstrated that rational thinking is dependent on metaphors gained by experience and that scientific rationality cannot employ logic and mathematics to make claims beyond what is empirically accessible.