We shouldn't associate atheism and autism.

Post Reply New Topic

A couple of years ago I went on this site and I saw a poll about religion. Apparently about 50 percent of us are atheists. Does this mean that 50 percent of autistics are atheists? I don't think so.

The internet in general is full of atheists. Look at Reddit. It is a site for everyone and easily 60 percent of the users are atheists.

We must remember that most people are religious. We are going to face more persecution if people think all autistics are atheists.

I don't think anyone associates atheism with autism. Like you said, what's reflected within WrongPlanet's community is hardly indicative of people on the autistic spectrum as a whole.

This community just seems to be more vocally anti-theist. Go to the front page of PPR and you'll see ten threads on atheism or criticism of religion (five of which were started by one person) and only one for religious persons. Conversely, there could be another ASD forum where the statistics are switched. I don't think there's any comprehensive, conclusive link between autistic persons and religion.

Only in America. I think most other countries that WP users post from generally hold favourable views of atheism, even religious people don't persecute atheists. Anyway, within a generation or two even America will probably be majority atheist.

If autistic people are more likely to be atheists, we shouldn't fear the consequences of that. We're persecuted (for want of a better word) due to misconceptions all the time, we need to fight those misconceptions with the truth, not with different misconceptions.

Your point about sampling error is a good one though.

Another aspie site I used to go to did seem to be thick with religious members, and the atheists were not a loud presence.

What was the name of it?

Indeed, I live in the Netherlands, and religion is in a minority and on the decline, have been for years.
There are even places where several denomiations of christianity remerged to keep some amount of people in church.

Now, noone procecutes religious people, nor is atheism heralded, it is simply a non-issue.

Same with Sweden. We're close to 80% "non-believer", and the state church is a flavour of christianity so neutered it's generally indistinguishable from humanism playing dress-up. Every once in a while some pastor will go nuts and stab a few teddy bears with swords while ranting about the gays, but for the most parts religion here is downplayed an unintrusive. Although there have been disturbing developments around a local mosque.

I would think that more logically inclined people would be less likely to be into faith based belief systems. But while their is core autistic traits I have seen no evidence of a autistic belief system. While it is often expressed differently belief systems of autistics vary as much as NT's

I think part of it stems from the fact that a lot of autistic individuals grow up in small-town households, and their negative experiences often cause them to abhor everything to do with that lifestyle. Alternatively, because small-town America is so infused with Christianity, and some denominations of Christianity have a primitive understanding of mental illness at best, it can be very difficult for them. I have read a lot of it, and it seems to be a very knee-jerk response. I imagine a lot of these autistic hyper anti-theists had a rough time with religion.
I think it is an unfortunate occurrence, because I think that the mentality of Atheism-Autism being linked makes some people see Atheists as anti-social and other people see Autists as Satanists. I have a few autistic friends who I feel could use some religion in their lives, but are afraid or otherwise unwilling to consider faith in large part because of the idea that religion is somehow "the enemy" of autism. It is certainly not a universal hatred though. I was once a violent anti-theist, but finding God has helped me immensely, even more than medication. I don't think it has anything to do with logic. There may be this popular Rain-manesque view of autists, but in reality I find that we are just as capable of irrationality as anyone else, and have no special claim to "reason".

You see, I agree that atheism should not be associated with autism...I have autism and I am not an atheist, so I don't want it assumed that because I have autism I must be an atheist. However I do not see attempting to avoid facing more persecution as a relevant reason if there is persecution towards atheism the best thing to do is make sure atheists whether they are atheist or not have representation and stand up to said persecution.

Basically I don't want to keep the two non-associated because I want to be separate from 'those people' who face persecution to avoid it myself. Kids at school used to do that to me...some even admitted to my face they joined or just stood by when I was getting picked on because they didn't want to get made fun of to, its not a behavior I care to mimic. I simply don't believe there should be an association having autism does not make one more likely to be an atheist and there is no evidence even most people with autism are athiests. I mean what about non-verbal autistics who haven't found a way of communicating effectively with the outside world how do we know what they are in that regard? Do their care takers just assume/decide that for them based on their own?

I wouldn't be so sure: The Global Decline of Atheism

The link goes to 'Conservapedia', a site that is not exactly known for its impartiality when it comes to things like this.

Religion is generally something imparted on us by social expectations.

Autism = socially ret*d* and doesn't take external opinions in to the same amount

So, it makes sense that there'd be more autistic people that aren't religious. But, there'd also be very religious autistic people if that's their own interest.

I attribute atheism to my autism for this reason.

*Don't bother, mod. "ret*d" in this context means "delayed".

Then...why not just say "socially delayed" instead?

"The Aspie Hangout." (on Delphi Forums).

Its still exists but kinda of ghost town now.

Because I'm not changing my speech habits purely because some people might get upset over words I may use.

I don't expect anyone else to either.