AUTISM, and religion

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God, why is it that you atheists often have a lengthy, cliched story about why you don't believe in Christianity and think religion stinks?

It's also annoying when people have an opinion on Buddhism when they barely know anything about it.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

apatheist

Oh, I don't know, maybe because we're offended by the notion that we're "evil sinners" who deserve to burn in hell forever and ever? Maybe we're offended that we were repeatedly lied to by parents and clergy when we were small, impressionable children? Maybe we get tired of crusading Christian fundamentalists and crazed evangelicals trying to remake this great country in the image of theocratic Iran or Saudi Arabia, with forced prayer in the schools, discrimination against non-believers, and a rollback of much scientific and medical progress not to mention freedom and human rights?

Besides, I didn't say all religion stinks - just the Middle Eastern ones.

Did you even read what I wrote?

I'm pretty sure it's not as lengthy and cliched as your bible, which says most of humanity stinks and deserves eternal torture.



OK, what should I know about Buddhism? I'll be young grasshoppa, you be master. I can't wait to hear how you jumped to the conclusion that I know barely anything about it.

IT WAS NOT ONE PAIR OF EVERY SPECIES ON EARTH. To say that and then tell US to go read the Bible... honestly. It was SEVEN. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?se ... ersion=NIV

Re: Jesus rebelling against the Jews, you have it way wrong. Repeatedly, he drew on the religion and culture in his debates with the Pharisees; he was arguing not that the religion was bad, but that the Pharisees had misinterpreted it.

And you're right, that there has been cross-pollination-- contamination of Christianity and Judaism by pagan religions, and the reverse.

I definitely do not believe that autism is a sin. That's just plain ridiculous; as well say it's a sin to be female, or black, or ret*d. We are capable of being just as moral, though, as with everything, we approach it in a different way. But it's the destination that counts, and we can get there just as easily as NTs. I do believe that God intentionally created us as part of the natural variation of humanity; we are not a mistake, we are not broken, we are most certainly not proof that God is cruel. We are as he made us. Deeply flawed, like everyone else. Highly skilled, like everyone else. Useful, sometimes evil. Sometimes we come to know God, and sometimes we don't.

That's WORSE! It's ridiculously impossible!



You're right in part. He did say that the Pharisees (Jewish priesthood or clergy) were abusing the law by enforcing the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit of the law (which he maintained was loving, compassionate, forgiving, etc.)

But where is the evidence of this? It is merely Jesus' assertion. For example, according to biblical law (just like Islamic law), a woman who commits adultery is supposed to be stoned to death. It's very clear. That's supposedly what "god" wants us to do, because that's what "he" says in the bible. And for hundreds of years before Jesus came along, that's exactly what happened, to countless terrified women.

But Jesus said "only those who have never sinned can throw a stone". He was trying to completely overturn biblical law!

Which is great - I'm all for it, because I hate that kind of cruelty, but it doesn't square with what you're claiming. The Pharisees, after all, were nothing if not experts on biblical law - they spend their whole lives studying the bible and administering god's law. The vast majority of Jews agreed with their clergy, which is why the mob was screaming for Jesus to be executed, and why only a handful followed Jesus while he was living (and committed suicide or scattered after his death).

It was the Greeks who wrote the New Testament and created the Christian religion and church, many years later. Yeah, the Greeks, with their ancient fetish for adolescent boys. Is it any wonder that "altar boys" became a fixture of the church? Why not "altar girls"? Why altar anything? It seems to me that the Christian dogma and church were the ingenious creation of gay Greek pedophiles, who became the clergy. All the rest of it is just to mystify and terrify parents into handing over their money and young boys to these guys.

I'm pretty much Agnostic. I'm not bothered really by religion itself, but by people and their beliefs. For example, many people who consider themselves Christians also justify all the senseless violence we've had over the course of history. The Christian god does not teach those things. They are also for government, which the Christian god also says is not a good thing.

So, what I'm saying is: many people claim to be something, but it seems they don't know or don't care to know very much about their chosen religion. That is my problem: if you're going to have a faith, KNOW ABOUT IT!

self diagnosed aspie for now but I am a follower of Christ. Never will leave his side or turn my back and I will say it is the very basis of my life. Sometimes I wonder if I hold such strong faith because it is one of my "interests" which I like to research and study and I take it very seriously, but I have full faith either way.

Well I am a Christian now, even though I spent some years really doubting that it was real. I had some spiritual events happen that make it impossible for me to believe that God does not exist. However when I learned that I had AS last year I really questioned why it would exist in me and for what purpose. I still don't know for sure but I've come a long way. My views on Christianity differ a lot from the mainstream and a lot of other Christians probably don't or won't accept my thoughts on the matter but it's just part of keeping an open mind.

Well I am a Christian now, even though I spent some years really doubting that it was real. I had some spiritual events happen that make it impossible for me to believe that God does not exist. However when I learned that I had AS last year I really questioned why it would exist in me and for what purpose. I still don't know for sure but I've come a long way. My views on Christianity differ a lot from the mainstream and a lot of other Christians probably don't or won't accept my thoughts on the matter but it's just part of keeping an open mind.

I'm non-religious by default. Grew up in a non-religious family in a non-religious place. I tried to learn about them but they don't really click with me. Religions to me are like sports, I'm not really interested and kinda suck at playing.

I used to be religious. This was because my family brought me up to believe in catholicsm. I believed in it as I once did for Santa. Then (much like my belief in Santa) I "connected the dots" so to speak and realised that I have no reason to believe that any deity exists, nevermind the fact that the events of the bible are historically and scientifically incorrect. I tried to force myself to believe in christianity by cherry picking the parts I liked and making excuses for the parts I didn't like. I truly wanted to believe because I didn't want to make my family unhappy (particularly my grandparents, who are devoutly religious and brouht me and my sister up for some time).

There may very well be a God, but there may very well be a magical unicorn as well. What makes God more credible than the unicorn? I'm not much happier nor am I much less happy as an atheist. I am, however, glad that I can admit that I don't know all the answers. I think of myself as an anti-theist as well as an atheist because I feel that religion is nothing but a crutch and I know that people are stronger than that. Maybe I'm evil or simply naive for thinking that humans have the inherant potential to be very good,strong and independent.

first off feel compelled to say how much i HATE the term 'faith' for religion. no idea why, but i just do.

anyway, really interesting- i was just reading something else, which said people with AS are LESS likely to be religious, due to religion being basically a theory of mind thing-

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/ ... 2010-05-29

i disagree; this is a really old fashioned view of AS.

i am religious, and would attribute it largely to being AS.
it comes mainly, i think, through subconscious inculcation from the (mainly old) fiction ive read through my life. because christianity was often present in the books, esp discussions of morality, it was something i just 'accepted'.

it was around me at school and home ina vague way, but only since my late 20s have i ever called myself religious. in fact, i was violently anti religion when i was 10, equating it to a form of fascistic indoctrination etc etc-( i was SUCH a fun child!!)

id also state that im sure god hates me, as im autistic, and have an unerringly miserable life because of it (no job, friends, social life, never go out, no money etc).
anyway, this again seems to be part of my AS rationale- that i can 'see' a fact, but still fail to draw a rational conclusion from it -in this case, that since i feel that god hates me/at least caused my suffering, i should hate him back, but fail to react to this information. i fail to see who 'loving' someone lets you create a life of suffering for them- deviod of hapiness seems- well... questionable. i realise we're all different etc with AS, but my experiance of it is pretty awful, so i am pretty cross at having it. anyway....

there was also a fascinating documentary on the bbc a few years ago, which ventured that much religious 'experiance' is to due to brain disorder-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2865009.stm

-"What we suggested was that there are certain circuits within the temporal lobes which have been selectively activated in these patients and somehow the activity of these specific neural circuits makes them more prone to religious belief."

id probably be methodist (the most liberal lot, and i really like their having lay preachers etc- SO brilliantly biblical) but (stupid As reasoning no 5,962-) i prefer churches to chapel architecturally, so im low CofE, though i attend either if i go- which is not often. (NOT a morning person).

just self edited out a long rant about where christanity is going wrong nowadays,and who nazi the pope is etc. (VERY).

ThomasL what you said about thinking middle eastern religions, while it was your opinion. please do not try and repel anyone of these faiths (even if they are a little crazy) it would be great to get opinions on spirituality from aspies of other faiths. and misslottie i am so sorry to hear that your depression has turned you away from christ. i would recommend that you call out to jesus, he will answer your calls FOR SURE!! !! and they do say god works in mysterious ways, i guess. and to those evilutionists how can you say god does not exist? you cannot deny that he will judge you as an aspie on the day of judgement whether the scriptures are accurate or not does not matter, you have refutted the bible BUT NOT JESUS!! !! please respond!! !!

The closest I ever got to being religious was when I was baptised and the only reason I was is because it's tradition. I was raised secular in a mostly secular environment. I don't understand spirituality, I don't know why some people need it, seek it, cling to it, lie for it, kill for it or god knows what else.

Evilutionists? Seriously?