Religion (or lack thereof) and Autism/Asperger's?

Page 13 of 24 [ 370 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 ... 24  Next


(People with Autism/Aspergers Only) Religion or Not?
I am very religious, and attend religious services/meetings as often as possible. 9%  9%  [ 54 ]
I am religious, but do not always attend religious services/meetings. 8%  8%  [ 43 ]
I am religious, and attend meetings/services on occasion. 2%  2%  [ 14 ]
I am religious, but I rarely attend meetings/services. 9%  9%  [ 51 ]
I am confused in this area. 6%  6%  [ 35 ]
I am agnostic. 24%  24%  [ 136 ]
I am atheist. 42%  42%  [ 239 ]
Total votes : 572

CockneyRebel
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Age: 51
Gender: Male
Posts: 121,144
Location: In my own little country

28 May 2011, 10:12 pm

I find comfort in God and Heaven, therefore I believe in God. :)


_________________
The Family Schlager


Sweetleaf
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Jan 2011
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 35,278
Location: Somewhere in Colorado

28 May 2011, 10:29 pm

I am not religious....but i am not exactly an athiest or agnostic. There is not really a good way to describe my veiws on this. I have had spiritual encounters so I belive there are spiritual beings.......but I am not really sure what their purpose is.



hale_bopp
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Nov 2004
Gender: Female
Posts: 17,054
Location: None

28 May 2011, 10:32 pm

Not religious. Not Atheist. Not agnostic.

I think that there may be a relation, but it doesn't apply to all. I'm extremely attune to spirituality.



bergie
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 18 Mar 2011
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 290
Location: Phoenix, AZ

28 May 2011, 11:36 pm

Christianity was a special interest for a while. Became a devout atheist shortly thereafter.



SammichEater
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Mar 2011
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,903

28 May 2011, 11:53 pm

I'm an atheist. I find any sort of religion hard to believe. I just can't believe it. There's too many flaws.


_________________
Remember, all atrocities begin in a sensible place.


abyssquick
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 7 May 2011
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 365

29 May 2011, 12:20 am

Religion is too provincial. The universe is too big. Considering the unfathomable, inescapable size of the universe, and everything we potentially do not yet know, the anthropocentric parameters of religion are just far too narrow, it's time-frame totally negligible. To think that existence is contained in these provincial writings, bound in the parameters of the human mind, and even further by language - it all seems very, very illogical. There's a reason religion answers your problems, comforts your fears, braces your existence. That's it's purpose. There's a reason people either inherit religion from their parents, or obtain one that fits them, like trying on a t-shirt. This purpose has little to do with universal or moral truth.



Seph
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 24 May 2011
Age: 49
Gender: Male
Posts: 406
Location: In a space station in orbit around Saturn

29 May 2011, 1:49 am

My position is:

Weak atheist - meaning I don't believe in God or gods. Not, I believe there are no God or gods.
Weak agnostic - meaning I have no knowledge or evidence for my position.
Cultural Christian - meaning I still like to do the church thing.


_________________
Why oh why didn't I take the BLUE pill? -Cypher, Matrix


Verdandi
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Dec 2010
Age: 56
Gender: Female
Posts: 12,275
Location: University of California Sunnydale (fictional location - Real location Olympia, WA)

29 May 2011, 4:08 am

I have at various times fit every single item on this list.

I think I tend to hover around agnostic these days. I find religion does not have much meaning for me, although I don't begrudge other people for finding meaning in it. I am no fan of proselytizing - and I include aggressive atheists in that.



Nordlys
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 20 Apr 2011
Age: 43
Gender: Female
Posts: 298
Location: Italy, Lombardy region

29 May 2011, 7:22 am

I consider myself as Christian, though i have my personal viewing of this religion.
For example, I believe both in God and Evolution, and i see Bible as an history book written by God, because many things that are written in the Bible have a lot in common with that is written on a regular history book


_________________
Vaccines can cause cancer in cats. Think about that, before vaccine yours (I'm owner of a VAS survivor cat)
- Sorry for bad english (and bad norwegian), I'm italian -
2012 - år av nordlys... og sørlys.
- La diversità è l'elemento principe del mondo -


Acacia
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,986

29 May 2011, 7:39 am

I think of religion as a culturally-defined set of practices and beliefs. It is very much influenced by archaic historical precedents and other peoples' ideas.
By this definition, I am not religious.

Spirituality is something altogether different.
I can experience and know spirituality separately from any creed or doctrine or group-think practice.
Spirituality is highly personal, yet universal.
To me, in encompasses the microcosm and macrocosm and leaves nothing out.

In my opinion, spirituality (not religion) explains the origins of the universe, and Science explains every detail of how it operates. This knowledge suits me :)


_________________
Plantae/Magnoliophyta/Magnoliopsida/Fabales/Fabaceae/Mimosoideae/Acacia


DarknLight
Hummingbird
Hummingbird

User avatar

Joined: 4 Apr 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 22

30 May 2011, 2:07 pm

i wonder why there was an interest to keep this debate (thread) going again, though i am interested on how we suddenly push aside our autisitc and asperger relations, and open up and talk about our beliefs, but i'm not to crazy about how we believe we can choose on what's right and what is wrong, i mean, who do we think is our moral giver? law officals? the government? are they concedered good people, or someone who just wants to make a living?

why was the 20th century the bloodiest in human histoy?

"do what thou wilt" has truly destroyed us all

we don't need closed minded atheists or violent religons, we need open minders, we need back the Gospal



abyssquick
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 7 May 2011
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 365

30 May 2011, 2:42 pm

DarknLight wrote:
i wonder why there was an interest to keep this debate (thread) going again, though i am interested on how we suddenly push aside our autisitc and asperger relations, and open up and talk about our beliefs, but i'm not to crazy about how we believe we can choose on what's right and what is wrong, i mean, who do we think is our moral giver? law officals? the government? are they concedered good people, or someone who just wants to make a living?

why was the 20th century the bloodiest in human histoy?

"do what thou wilt" has truly destroyed us all

we don't need closed minded atheists or violent religons, we need open minders, we need back the Gospal


To me, religion has never seemed to contain much moral truth or guidance. "The golden rule" is one gem, but this one is actually common in all religions, and in social structures generally, and has been for a very long time. There are terrible things written in some of the books. And the followers pick and choose what to apply, and what not to. Some truly terrible things have arisen out of broad religious cultures (to later be rationalized by the followers saying "well, they were doing it wrong back then" ). Or people change the subject and say "well, the atheist Stalin killed millions" in his terror-famine - as though that one facet operated independent of the social/political context of the time and place. These points of view are of course both very incomplete, being chiefly self-justifying in nature.

Anyways, I actually have an innate fear of many religions, I see them as entities breathed to life in old books from primitive times when we did not know very much. The wheelbarrow was emerging technology, for instance, when the Bible was written. I avoid religions because they seem, at least to me, to contain dangerous formulas of thinking based on logical consequences (and historical evidences) of their doctrines. I avoid them in the same way one avoids a crouching tiger - more for the potentiality of danger.

I don't think religion has any basic claim to morality - in fact, this whole concept that "we get our morals from some kind of higher authority" is itself oversimplified. We're not just doing whatever we want, to think we would do terrible things without some outside authority telling us not to, seems very strange to me. Such a suggestion seems to assume that humans are mindless children, almost. I don't think humans are uncivilized naive barbarians without religion. I do see however, that religion can often hold this very assumption itself. Each of us has a strong innate ability to govern ourselves in relation to other people - we don't just go around killing one another. So does a pirhana, for example - they are eating machines, yes, but they do not chaotically 'do what they want' and eat each other - there is an innate order. We have that, as well, as do most species of animal. We humans also pick up more subtle things from the culture around us, too, so our morality can get quite informed and complex depending on our influences.

It's a very interesting topic to me.



Zen
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Nov 2010
Age: 49
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,868

30 May 2011, 3:09 pm

I underwent a long search for "the truth" when I was a teen, the end result of which was that not only am I atheist but I don't believe in the existence of anything supernatural. It's the only way the world makes sense to me.

Of course, I have no issues at all with people who believe otherwise, as long as they aren't trying to force it on me, especially in the form of laws. I do think all of it is interesting.



crouton
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 May 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,207

30 May 2011, 4:28 pm

Agnostic. I had a secular upbringing, so I've never had any real religious experience beyond a few brief periods of fascination with certain religions.



crmoore
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 May 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 614
Location: Scottsdale, AZ

30 May 2011, 4:43 pm

I know this won't be a popular answer since I'm in the minority here (something all Aspies should be familiar with), but I've been going to church as long as I can remember and have volunteered with their youth group for the past ten years. While my social status is fairly thin there, the people I am friends with are the people I'm closest to outside of my family. In fact, church is one of the few places in public I feel comfortable.



Dessie
Pileated woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 15 May 2011
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 177

30 May 2011, 8:56 pm

Spiritual, not religious. Never had very much to do with organized religions.

My spirituality is a personal thing so I never attend any kind of services or anything. It's a kind of important part of my life and I'm kind of serious about it.

I got really into Wicca, Witchcraft, and the different types of Paganism when I was 14. I found it mostly because of my interest in mythology (which I was in love with at the time because of the idea of mulitiple deities).

For like a year I didn't want to learn about anything else. I'm still fascinated today almost 5 years later. At first I wanted everyone (friends and family) to know about it, but they didn't share my enthusiasm. That's when I first learned to shut up about the things I'm interested in. :D So it's still all personal for me.

With so many aspies who don't believe in even one god, I wonder how I turned out believing in multiple gods and goddesses!! !!

Everyone is different though.