Why are so many ppl with Aspergers non-believers?

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I've wanted to ask this question for a really long time but, Truely didn't want to deal with all the drama attached to it. So, I'm sitting with nothing better to do than question all that is, was and ever will be and thought, "what the Hello Kitty?"

I'm a Christian but not an extremist! As a Christian, I don't believe that evil or bad things are a result of God or his punishment or anything if the sort. In fact, I do believe that we bring a lot of things on ourselves and then wrongfully blame God For not Resueing us from the results or from whatever. But, I'm the mother of a 7 year old daughter with Aspergers and so I guess the stakes have been raised a bit.

While I believe in letting my children (once they're at an appropriate age of course) decide for themselves what they choose to believe in but, I've already raised one adult daughter and did so with a firm belief in God. Again, not a belief in that it's okay to judge others for their non- belief or to judge those of different religions or those that "sin". As a Christian, I believe that we've all sinned. I know I have many many many times and that I'm likely to do so many more times before I did. Not sinning doesn't make you a Christian nor does it guarantee you a place in Heaven.

So, now I'm a bit worried though because I've read so many posts from ppl here that claim they feel religion is a way way to manipulate ppl and so on. I think that's obviously been a basis to manipulate ppl for centuries by those that choose to do so but, I don't believe that's how God intended it to be and I would never allow my children to be exposed to ppl that are "that" kind of Christians. However, will my daughter one day feel like I used my own religious beliefs to manipulate her? Will she resent me for trying to encourage her to believe in God?

I'm not sure what I'd do even if I knew without doubt the answers to those were yes but, I thought what better a place to ask.

Opinion = mine.

I think Aspies are naturaly logical people. And they can be correct in most things, at least they think so. So when confronted by something as impossible as a God, it's simply a bridge too far for them to believe. Even consider that a God is possible.

Most have never read the bible, and those who do only do so to pick it appart. Very few Aspies believe in God as far as I can tell. But those of us who do, seem to understand what the bible is all about, and why God isn't obvious in the world.

It's all smoke & mirrors after all.

In general, I think that it is beneficial that people try to adopt beliefs which are evidence based. People have real problems, and true beliefs tend to lead to real solutions. Evidence helps to maximise the ratio of true over false beliefs.

In sort of answer to the op's question, like most children who need to base their opinions on what other people tell them, I expected to see something supernatural when I was very young. Having not experienced anything supernatural, I eventually stopped feeling as though the supernatural was something plausible. Then In my late teens I started actively reading about Atheism, and that was it for religion.

I am sure this has been been linked before on these forums, but "The Atheist Experience," is a great place to learn what atheism and counter apologetics are about. It is a televised public access call-in show from Austin Texas with experts who are well versed in the subject. Their site has an extensive free archive of old shows.


http://www.atheist-experience.com/

Last edited by Stannis on 25 Jan 2014, 7:50 am, edited 12 times in total.

I think it might be useful to refine the op's idea a little. In my experience autists tend to have self-generated belief systems. Personally I dont subscribe to any religious system, rather I consume a variety of materials from across the spectrum. I imbibe ideas from regions as diverse as the metaphysic transhumanists to the ancient kaballists to Christian mysticism. This can then by synthesised into a sort of heady syncretic brew.

I'm a Christian, and I was diagnosed with AS about 6 months ago. I've struggled for years with my faith, mostly due to emotional issues like resentment toward my "super-religious" aunt and uncle who cared much more about the Law than love.

I'd suggest to the OP that she brings her daughter up with a good sense of morality; as I'm sure she intends to; however, don't make the mistake of equating Christianity with morality. Encourage your daughter to explore religions in general and also the sciences. The breaker came for me when I was 11 years old. I was being brought up as a Christian but then in science I learned about evolution and discovered that all that Genesis stuff about a god creating Adam and Eve was just mythology with no basis in reality. This triggered a lot of questions about the validity of the bible and the Christian faith. I realised that the Christian god of the bible was no different to other mythological gods such as Zeus, Odin etc. At that point I became an atheist. I did read the bible through a number of years later but was turned off by the endless violence, nastiness and self-centred behaviour of the Christian god. I did feel a spiritual gap in my life though and eventually found my home in Zen Buddhism (in which there are no mythological gods).

I suggest you allow and help you daughter to explore these things herself and let her find her own way. Don't try to indoctrinate her with anything.

Aspies tend to have extremely logical, literal, concrete thought processes, and a lot of things about most religions aren't logical, literal, or concrete. As such, it is hard for many aspies, myself included, to go with or understand any sort of religious or spiritual beliefs. I remember, up until I was 12, I had religious beliefs and was convinced I was Catholic, though really I was only doing it because I was convinced that I wasn't allowed any other sort of choice. One day though, I was just like "screw it, none of this makes any sense to me", and I left behind the shackles of religious belief.

Now, don't get me wrong, I fully support people's decisions to believe what they want, how they want to, but at the same time, I want others to respect my decision not to believe in anything.

Because were literal thinkers and logical thinkers! I for one have doubts that a magical invisble man exists and know the Earth is 4.5 billion years old via Potassium Argon dating and not Carbon14 dating and its not 6000 years old, also that we evolved from apes and did not come from dirt and that snakes cannot talk.

Last edited by AspieOtaku on 25 Jan 2014, 5:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

Not sure that's the case. There are a lot of atheists who come from very religious backgrounds.

I myself am agnostic (not one of those wishy-washy, christmas-and-easter agnostics, I am very firm and devout in my belief that I have no f****n clue whats going on up in this universe) but, even accepting the possibility of a god, I find organized religion to be, at best, silly and, at worst, terrifying.

And I did read the bible, and not in order to pick it apart. Hell, after 12 years of catholic school with religion class sandwiched between math and english every day, plus a couple years of confirmation classes when I was confirmed, plus another couple years of classes when I acted as my fathers sponsor when he was finally confirmed, I know the bible as well as anyone short of an actual member of the clergy (and better than some of them, I'd wager). And, like I said, I did not read it to pick it apart. I read it trying to believe. I read it with the firm belief that belief in that book was the only way to be a good person, and still couldn't make myself believe.

I think it has nothing to do with ASD, rather the internet reaches beyond the US. In particular wrong planet has many members from europe and western cultures in asia. So what you are seeing is a far more complete representation of theistic belief within western culture.

One reason for me is because growing up Catholic, priests and nuns are generally mean and really just what is a church supposed to DO? Most of the time mass is listening to a old man priest criticizing the audience. Its not educational like a school would be and most of the Catholic churches I know are not social places either, people just run to their cars after mass and go, so why come in the first place? Protestant churches seem to have more social activity but then it is like a community center. Again, we know that a school is a place to learn things and a store is a place to buy things and a hospital is a place to be treated for illness and a you live in house/apartment and a theatre is for entertainment but what is a church supposed to DO?

It might actually be partly biological. Religious feelings are basically reflected in brain activity-endorphins give you a religious "high" feeling. Some people never feel this, or like me, only feel it only sometimes in music or while drawing or painting oe writing. They suspect it might be part of the reason drug addicts turn to religion or working out. It gives them a "natural" high.

gross oversimplification

For me, it is readily apparent that the majority of "believers" would much rather use their religion to justify their evil acts than be inspired to help others.

Instead of "Let's go and make disciples of all nations", it's more like "Let's kill them all and let God sort them out" instead .

The Bible has been used to justify slavery, capital punishment, war, racism, the denial of women's rights, conquest by genocide, and outright hatred toward the LGBT-Q crowd.

And it's all so damned obvious, even while believers try to rationalize and justify these actions - when they're not denying them outright.

Aspies are naturally rule and detail oriented people which in some cases translates to "logical".

The problem is that most religions are based on wishful thinking rather than discernible fact.

ruveyn

Actually, the Catholic church has been largely responsible for abolishing capital punishment in Latin-America and Eastern-Europe for the past 50 years, as well as negotiating the release of political prisoners--and the re-emergence of Buddhism in China is slowly improving the human righs there. I don't think any muslim post-Soviet state is worse of today than it was 30 years ago in terms of human rights. The communist states are a living proof that homophobia, war, racism, genocide and male chauvinism does not need religion to thrive.