Autism and atheism link??

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Interestingly, part of the actual study, referenced from the daily mail site, was conducted on this internet site, using the PPR forum.

http://csjarchive.cogsci.rpi.edu/proceedings/2011/papers/0782/paper0782.pdf



It's interesting that they matched the PPR demographic with a teen forum. Apparently they didn't realize that the ages in PPR range from the teens to the 70's and even 80's, Per, at least one Octogenarian that has posted regularly in that forum, in the past.

It was only one of two parts of the study, but the demographic difference could definitely skew the results, since some individuals haven't solidified their beliefs in their teens.

There is no link because it's a matter of human perception. Having religion or not having one has to do with your experiences in life and what led you to that decision.

Although personally I feel like I'm chosen by God, so no, not atheist but I don't feel like a person who has free will as well. Well, it's complicated. I feel like I should be doing more but don't exactly know what that is. I've felt this way as young as five years old when barely anything in the world made any sense to me.

Anyone can have the meanings of parables explained to them, especially because this is the way people who preach the word to non-Christians do it and ministers of the church explain it during a sermon.

I don't care what others believe in and they are free to do so, but I have a problem with smugness. Everyone believes in something that can't be proven. Take fore example theoretical physics that is blurring the lines between science fact and science fiction. And that's not because I'm a Christian that I say that, I actually became very distraught once my factual thinking mind came to the realisation that those things were impossible to prove.

I think in the absence of a belief in God people still need to believe in something and the more it can be a plausibility and backed up by the law and physics and mathematic equations, the better.

The reason why I came back to faith is because I was a strong atheist that who everything was going well for and needed no reason to go back to God, yet I still did.

Of the other atheists I've spoken to, I've gotten the impression that there is as much that differs in our beliefs as that which is the same. I think a study on religious beliefs would be more useful if there was less focus on monikers and more on personal philosophies. There are so many factors that influence a person's lifestyle choices, including religion. Afterall, there's some agreement that autistics tend to be a varied group, possibly more varied than neurotypicals, so I would imagine that making generalizations of any sort would be that much more difficult.

As for myself, I do think that feeling socially marginalized contributed to my disinterest in religion, especially as a child. I never felt like I fit in at church and I got the impression that others recognized that I was different too. I didn't enjoy being there and while it is also true that I felt the same way at school, church was optional whereas school was not. My parents were also going through an evaluation of their beliefs at the same time, making it easier for me to question the beliefs I had been raised with. I also did not take well to the moral authority that individuals at church exercised over me, nor did I like the idea of a supernatural being dictating my life. A was a very strong-willed child, and I seem to be about the same as an adult. I don't think the belief aspect of religion really had much affect on me. That is, my decision to not attend church had more to do with a dislike of being controlled by others than it did with actual belief. A few years after I had stopped going to church someone asked me what my religion was and it was then that I realized I was an atheist. Though as a child I wasn't aware that there were very many other atheists, I've since become aware of their existence and have developed more of a personal philosophy of atheism as a result. In high school it was mostly something I kept quiet about to avoid the rancor of my peers.

My aspie boyfriend is also an atheist and from what he has told me of his experiences it seems there is also a connection. Whereas his sibling attended a religious school, my boyfriend went to a variety of alternative schools. His classmates at these schools were of a variety of religious backgrounds and he thinks that this exposure opened his mind to the possibility of an alternative to the religion he was raised with. Furthermore, one of his interests is philosophy which in his case has prompted him to examine religious belief and articulate his own philosophy of morals.

(Thread moved from Autism discussion to PPR)

I'm not an atheist, or theist, or agnostic. I think those views all accept a certain measure of irrational thought, and are all intellectually corrupted.

I'm ignostic, and my argument is called theological noncognitivism. To explain, an excerpt from Wiki;

I mention this, because I think there are numerous people who fly under the banner of atheist/agnostic, who may be more aptly described as ignostic, too.

Just out of interest, what is the religious affiliation of your parents (if any)?

Methodist in a small town. My parents quit going to church after a favorite minister left when I was around 10. During college I joined a southern gospel quartet and was saved. Then my parents began attending church again and they got saved.

All people that don't hold a positive god belief for whatever reason are atheists. Ignosticism is therefore a subset of atheism, imho.

Atheists don't necessarily make any assumptions about the nature of god/s. Even people who have never heard the word "god" are atheists.

So when you grew up, you were probably familiar with the Christian god / Jesus. Careful thinking led you to the conclusion that a variation of your childhood belief must be the right faith and world view. Christianity also happens to be the majority religion in the USA and is the only religious world view that is not discriminated against, unlike Islam or Judaism.

I have no doubt that you gave it a lot of thought and that your current faith feels right to you. I just think there might have been a certain bias involved. I mean, I have never read about someone who grew up in a Christian family in a predominantly Christian country, went on a spiritual search for the truth, and found that Shinto, Zoroastrianism, or Australian Aboriginal mythology made more sense than Christian beliefs.

Last edited by CrazyCatLord on 13 Feb 2012, 6:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

CCL, I misread your post at first, and thought you were talking about faith in child-Jesus.

This would explain why I was never really compatible with religious ideas and increasingly rejected them as I grew up. Interesting But I don't think that 61 people is a significant sample group size.

Yes, I should probably have worded that differently I'll change that sentence to make it more clear. I also misspelled Zoroastrianism, so I need to edit it anyway (I sometimes think I must have low-grade OCD).

I disagree. The spectrum of irrationality is as follows.

To be an atheist one must take the position that there are no deities.
And an agnostic is unsure if there are deities, so doesn't firmly take a position.
A theist takes the position there are deities.

An ignostic takes the position the word deities is without meaning, thus the argument is pointless. They do not put themselves into the spectrum of irrationality.

I find more value in discussing similarly nonsensical strings of words, like whether colorless green idea sleep furiously or not. At least these are novel and fresh. If we must continue discussing nonsense, can we at least keep it new and interesting?

Last edited by NarcissusSavage on 13 Feb 2012, 7:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

Classical Pantheism requires no specific language. Culture likely inhibits the experience for some.

Nor, does it likely require membership in the human species.

The beliefs of many "religions" past and present among human beings match the general definition of theism. They haven't heard the word God or Atheist; their definitions of their beliefs is the only issue that is relevant.

I don't think my cat is an atheist. I understand him to be connected to my personal definition of God, forever in his experience of the present, in the way it IS for him.

One can't really limit anyone elses definition for how they understand or experience the construct labeled as God on a personal level, unless one can enter another person's or creature's unique Universe of experience.

In respect to one's experience of what they define as what is, while God and atheist work well enough for some descriptions within our shared cultures, it only works for those whom it works for.

This kind of thing can be hard to put into words.

One thing I'm sure of, is, it's not as simple as what our particular shared culture normally defines as God, Agnostic, Ignostic, Theism, or Atheist. It would be easy if it were that black and white, but one's experience of God can have endless variations of color, that others don't experience.

There's not enough data to confirm. Organized religion concerns many aspects people with mild forms of Autism tend to shy away from. Group activities, socialization, public speaking, and conformity.

I'm not particularly comfortable with many of those aspects personally. I'm still religious, albeit non practicing. I don't deny the philosophies, and I do trust the thousands of years of social and political wisdom and debate.

(This conversation made me realize something) *People tend to point to prison as a harbor of religious beliefs, and that may be true. Take a look at prison, it's all about group activity, communal living, and conformity. Prison life itself is a form of organised living much like religion, not saying prison life is religion.

Agnostic here. Agnostic because there might be god-like super beings like Trelane out there and to me an afterlife of some sort is not totally out of the question (although I believe It is not dependent on a "god" or even conduct in life and not limited to humans or primates). If there is no afterlife, well, I won't be around to care.
I think there is a split. Some Aspies like the order of conventional religion, while others are more like comparative anthropologists and realize that so much religion is dependent on community and social norms and values. They either becaome atheists/agnostics or are non-conventionally religious.

Last edited by MagicToenail on 13 Feb 2012, 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.