aspergers + God negative? ORIGINAL SIN

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GroovyDruid and Thagomizer, I think your views of the Adam and Eve story are perhaps more helpful.

In its most classical, literal form, the story seems to be saying that humans sinned, therefore not only we, but all living creatures suffer and die. This is clearly not logical; why should they suffer for our sin? (The Jehovah's Witnesses, I note, are the sole Christian group who've ever been explicit that while humans were created immortal, animals died from the word go. Interesting.)

In my view, natural death, ageing and disease should not be viewed as any kind of 'punishment'. They're simply a consequence of the way things are. Our problem is really our view of God as omnipotent and perfect - able to do anything no matter how far outside the known laws of nature, and able to do it without what we would perceive as any fault. Whereas, if you believe in any kind of creation by a higher power, that power appears to be doing what any artist does: working with a bunch of stuff that if you make it do certain things, is also fairly likely to do certain other things which you can't prevent it from doing without changing its entire nature.

In our own case, if we were intended to be immortal, we wouldn't breathe oxygen, we wouldn't have cell division and growth by means of DNA, and we wouldn't reproduce sexually, for starters. The whole history of life on our planet, and the form of that life, would have to have been radically different. Perhaps it wouldn't even have been possible for creatures to develop intelligence under such circumstances.

So, Asperger's? Simply, I think, one of many possible consequences of the way the human nervous system develops. Whether you view it as a negative thing or as a natural, and possibly in some ways positive, human variant is, of course, more a social and cultural thing.

There's a huge danger in saying any condition (even a definitely negative one) is a result of, or punishment for, moral evil. Even in a medical context, moral judgements (in the form of 'risk factors' and 'lifestyle choices') have become the order of the day, when in many cases we still don't know why people get sick. Less judgement, more compassion, would be a good thing.

God has many names, but do not think that any human can have power over God. I shudder to think what kind of books you've been reading.

They told me it in religous education, I just don't think of the word god as a name.

If the word is capitalized, "God," it is a name.

I assume it is the title, as it is considered by monotheistics to be the only god, then he is The God, and the title is refered only to him.

Then how and why God chooses someone to be born autistic or to be born with a disability or abortion (natural causes) for that matter, is that a random thing? or it is a curse for a sin someone commits and their descentands pay for it?

Nobody knows how and why, greenblue. Maybe there is a reason, maybe there isn't. Accept things as they are and you'll have much less personal turmoil.

No, in this case it's an epinym.

What's an epinym?

It's a way to avoid using the actual name that becomes so standardized in use that it becomes functionally equivalent to a name. It is analogous to the Rabbinical practice of "building a fence around the Law". That is, in order to help people avoid breaking one of the actual Levitical laws, Rabbis would advise that people set up another rule that was more expansive, to make it harder to break the actual Jewish law. However, over time, the "fence" gains such credence that it is given the level of respect that should be accorded only to the original law.

Example:

"You shall not boil a calf in its mother's milk" is one such law.

The "fence" would be "Do not eat beef cooked with cheese or other milk products, just to make sure that you do not inadvertently eat milk from a cow that has been cooked with meat from one of its calves.".

After a while, the "fence" gets so much respect that another "fence" has to be erected around the first, so we get the new rule of "do not eat beef with dairy".

But even this "fence" becomes elevated in esteem so it gets another "fence" that amounts to "do not eat any meat at all with dairy".

However, only one of the previous rules actually is strictly Law from Scripture. The rest are "fences" meant to prevent accidentally treading upon the Law.

Thus, in an attempt to not use the name of God, people used the word "God", suitably marked. However, over time, this substitute has become an epinym, so some people now, in order to avoid using an epinym, instead write "G-d". They don't understand why they do it or what they are actually doing.

Wow, you have an excellent way of explaning things. Are you Jewish? Who would ever want to boil a calf in its mother's milk? That sounds awful, but it probably sounds better than it looks. Or smells.

Orthodox Christian.

I see. I'm Roman Catholic.

Wouldn't the milk in which the calf is boiling just evaporate, anyway?

There are these things called "lids". They are remarkable inventions that greatly reduce the evaporation of a boiling liquid. You should try them, some time.

Did they have "lids" during the time of the Old Testament? Or "pots" for that matter?

If archaeology is anything to go by, yes. Fired clay, bronze, copper.