Controversial study: Is atheism linked to autism?

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Is atheism linked to autism? Controversial study points to relationship between the two

Last updated at 5:55 PM on 20th September 2011

People with 'mild' forms of autism are more likely to be atheists, according to a controversial new study - and more likely to shun organised religion in general.
The study, which looked at posts on autism forums, focused on people with high-functioning autism such as Asperger's.
The study, from University of Boston, speculates that common autistic spectrum behaviours such as 'a preference for logical beliefs' and a distrust of metaphor and figures of speech, could be responsible.

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Autism quotient (AQ) scores among the surveyed adults are plotted against their declared religious beliefs - atheists are a clear majority

The study authors, Catherine Caldwell-Harris and Patrick MacNamara studied discussions by 192 different posters on an autism website. They also looked at a survey of 61 people with high-functioning autism, and graphed against results from the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) test.
The results appeared to show that those with high AQ scores were 'more likely' to be atheists.
In the group of high-functionining autistic individuals, 26 per cent were atheists, compared to 16 per cent of 'neurotypical' individuals.

They said this is the first 'systematic study of the religious beliefs of autistic spectrum individuals who have normal or near-normal intelligence.'
The paper, 'investigates the proposal that individual differences in belief will reflect cognitive processing styles, with high functioning autism being an extreme style that will predispose towards nonbelief.'
Caroline Hattersley, Head of Information, Advice and Advocacy at The National Autistic Society said: 'Autism affects people from every sector of society and people with autism represent the full range of religious and non-religious beliefs.

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The metaphors and figures of speech found in religious texts may deter people with autistic spectrum disorders from religious belief

'It is important that people with autism have the freedom to make their own choices about their beliefs and receive the support they need,' says Hattersley.
Rajib Khan, writing on Discover Magazine's 'Gene Expression' blog wrote, 'I doubt this is going to surprise too many people. Additionally, we need to be careful about generalizing here.
'This doesn’t mean that a huge proportion of atheists are high functioning autistics (though there may be a larger proportion than the general population).'


source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... k-two.html

I don't know if aspies in general are proportionally more likely to be athiests. But the members of PPR sure are. How do I know? Because the study this article refers to studied........this very PPR forum!!



http://csjarchive.cogsci.rpi.edu/procee ... er0782.pdf


They don't tell you that in the article but I googled the study. See link. They got their data on the religious (or not) beliefs of autistic people by analyzing posts right here in PPR.


So if you ever wondered if posting in this forum has any influence on the non-WP world, now you see it does. The things said here have become part of the research record.

Well their are a lot of NT atheists in the world to an I have AS an I belive in God so who knows I can only speak for myself

Aspies are usually more intelligent and more prone to individual thinking. That's why.

I merely think that religion as a whole is like what ruveyn usually says, even LOTR is a better written fantasy. :p

I do have some interest in buddhism though, as it does not "clearly" try to enforce its religious ideas upon others and has a rather large acceptance of different people joining... (Unlike guess whom? fundamentalist protestant christians! XD Not that I'd ever want to join those guys anyways, they get enough bad press for trying to make the USA recede into the Dark Ages (Which does reminds me that the USA never went through the dark ages! Maybe you guys should try that and maybe you'll finally rebel against the authority of your clergymen))

It's called "garde-fou", in french it's put in place to avoid loonies from taking over. You people don't seem to understand that, but don't worry, with Sarkozy (who's some kind of pro-american sympathizer) in control of France, I'm starting to doubt about ours too. =/ Also, an alarm is usually when something important is about to or is occurring, non?

Besides, I'm not "quite" a fundamentalist atheist, but i'm HIGHLY skeptical or whatever religion implies. My only solution to the problem, would be to go back in time, and document (not interfere with) WHATEVER (note, that implies ANY scenario, even the one the bible claims happened) occurred at that time, if possible. Sadly, it's nothing but a pipe dream until then.

Also, back at you. Aren't you the one claiming all other media outlet lies and is out to criticize conservatism? :p But hey, whatever you don't like, it's only your opinion, and I can respect that, but because it's an opinion, that doesn't mean you're right.

Indeed, which is why it's intriguing.

Also, I don't read American medias. At ALL. The only thing American which I might watch, is the Discovery channel. All my other news are in Canada.