People with Asperger's less likely to see purpose...

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...in the events in their lives.

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

So it seems people with AS are more realistic than NT's? In other words, we don't make up fairy tales to explain why things happen to us. We were cured from cancer because the treatment and our immune systems fought it, not because "God cured us", We met our significant other because we happened to be in the right place at the right time, not because "it was meant to be", etc...

I can relate to all of that, even though I am a Christian. I have a very realistic view of things. Things happen to me, because it's the right time for them to happen. I meet a group of people, who become my best friends, because I happen to be at the right place, at the right time. The second Tuesday in the November of 2006 is a perfect example.

One of my pet peeves are people that attribute good things to God and bad things to Satan instead of using rational deduction and natural consequences. It's illogical.

Thanks for sharing.

AWESOME! parents: School inicdent happen for a reason etc. Me: Uh no I listen to a JERK who stabbed me in the back and went to the school/teacher and got me suspended for a year. Parents: Oh just get over it etc. Me: Sure get over the fact that my behavior upsets everyone in my environment ok whatever!! !!

I wonder if anyone can know the entire truth. Everything we tell ourselves could be lies, we just don't realize they are. Scientists "discover" theories only to have some of them disproven later. Maybe there is partial truth in "the world is flat". Maybe it's flat in some places, not so in others. Life is about questioning everything and a devotion to thinking outside the box, even when science is telling you it's proven something to be "true".

Dunno, there are a lot of religious Aspies around too. I guess they see purpose in a lot of events.

Must confess I don't though. I got a Christian education in the first school. and kind of believed it at first, but they didn't really labour the idea of purpose, and certainly on a day-to-day level nobody was suggesting that God was doing anything much but watching and judging. It wasn't too long before I figured out the whole notion of deities must be wrong......though it worried me for a long time that so many people seemed to think there was something in it.

I've always been comfortable with the idea that stuff just happens because of the way the molecules are arranged at the time. I sensed a few things about life and purpose in everything while I was using a lot of recreational drugs....don't know what that means though. These days I just see it all as maps of reality, a map can be useful to somebody for a time, but ultimately all maps are distortions of reality. Purpose for me is an internal issue, me going after what I want. It can come as a shock to me that others have purpose too.

I out grew the need for the tooth fairy, the easter bunny, and santa claus why would I need a diety? What has this diety done for me lately to have me attribute some fake miracle too.

I'll admit I don't necessarily see the hand of a deity in everything that happens, but I do think that things happen for a reason. If someone makes an attempt at something and fails horribly for one reason or another, then that person simply wasn't ready to do that thing at that time, either psychologically or physically. They may not have had all of the training they needed or have been as confident as they needed to be. It doesn't mean the person won't be ready another time in their life, just that they weren't ready at the time they tried and failed. I also firmly believe that life tends to work itself out if we let it. After cancer, the early death of one parent, a serious split and then reunion with the other -- she threatened to take my child away from me at one point -- a bad marriage to an emotionally abusive husband, a pending divorce and then sudden widowhood following his suicide, and serious financial troubles over and over, I can freely admit that nothing at all will be the end of the world for me -- at least until I get hit by a bus and killed. Things may get bad, but they'll always get better as well. We just have to enjoy what we can when life is at it's lowest -- even if the only thing to enjoy is the feeling of the air expanding our lungs (yeah, been there) -- and let it happen.

Interesting article. I am quite pleased that research like this is being done.

I too can't stand it when people say something happened for a reason. I usually just smile at them faintly but say nothing. I always think that things happen and there are consequences. How you deal with the consequences makes the difference to your life. But I will say that lots of things happen to me that just confuse the hell out of me to the point where I cannot even say what it was that happened! LOL

I can see that being the case. But due to some personal stuff I really have no choice but to believe their is a higher power of some kind beyond the physical universe. Coincidence & being in the right place at the right time doesn't seem to cover the luck of being born (very quickly) in the right hospital where you get immediate treatment for at birth seizures & lack of breathing... plus being born to the perfect mother to deal with my issues required more than just chance .

I felt a need to post due to alot of other posts that appear to confuse religion with spirituality Spirituality is an awareness that there is a creative force greater than ourselves. Different religions help people develop this awareness. A applicable analogy would be spokes on a wheel. All spokes (different religions) stand by themselves but are connected to the center hub (spirituality) I feel certain religions have "basdardized" any type of spiritual beliefs and people suffer as a result; a spiritual belief can enhance and enrich your life.

"We don't make up fairy tales to explain why things happen to us. We were cured from cancer because the treatment and our immune systems fought it, not because "God cured us", We met our significant other because we happened to be in the right place at the right time, not because "it was meant to be"

HELL YEAH!!

I've thought like this since I was fifteen or sixteen and I don't have a religious bone in my body. I've nothing against organized religion and if people feel good following that sort of stuff (including my late parents) then more power to their elbow, but I need a church about as much as the pope needs an Uzi.

Vanilla_Slice

What I can't get an answer for from people that believe that things 'happen for a reason' is that when small children get and die from something like cancer, what was the purpose of that? Or when a kidnapper rapes and kills a child, where's the meaning?

I will admit that I went through a brief period where mt special interest was spirituality, and I did feel that things 'happen for a reason'. But... the evidence didn't hold up, so I gave up researching it, and moved on.

Well, I'm quite into magic and religion, and I believe in a few wacky things, but I believe there are scientific explanations for them, they just aren't included in current conceptions of science.

Erm, I don't know if that's relevant.