Do Aspies tend to be less religious than the average person?

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I'm a theist. I believe in a higher power. I have no opinion on whether this higher power is one or many, male or female or neither or both, if it is omnipotent/scient/present or has limitations, or even whether it can communicate or do something that could approach human thought. For all I know, this higher power could just be a force of nature, or even pantheistic in nature.

I freely admit that this belief is not based on the support of cold, hard facts, which there are none, but rather on my observations on natural order as a rational, thinking being. Or it may just be the anthropic principle at work and my human ego is too fragile to admit that this experience is the fruit of pure, random luck and that my consciousness is nothing but electric impulses in a fleshy computer. I do not know for certain, but I believe that the human experience transcends mortality in some way.

Either way, I do not believe that this entity needs me to worship it or pray to it and I don't believe that it intervenes in my life. If it does, it does not mind that I think it doesn't because it does not concern itself with the opinions of the likes of me as it is not insecure, or maybe it just can't read my mind or the English or French languages. It sends me no support or strength but it also does not put hurdles on my path to test me. It doesn't give me any rules to follow but it has made it possible for me to discern what makes for a good life by using my brain. My spirituality is lightweight and yet, even with all the unknowns, I believe it is complete. I think that what is right is easily perceived with one's reason. Though we may choose to diverge from this natural order, sometimes substantially, things right themselves eventually as we rediscover those principles we have buried and the truth within them.

I don't really believe that autists are less religious than the general population, but I have observed that they are less orthodox in their beliefs. I think a lot of autists have their own syncretic spiritual truth.

It always surprises me in discussions like this how narrowly "religious" is always automatically translated to "Christian."
Or from there, has anything whatsoever to do with any "God" or "Bible." Or that every religion is inherently contradictory or opposed to logical, reasonable, rational thought, relying instead on unsubstantiated faith in anything.
Many people are very religious, without these elements being present at all.
As for autistics, I'd hazard a guess that it's the same as the rest of the population. Variables act on each individual, and there can be just as many religious autistics as there are atheist or agnostic autistics.

Campin_cat: got your message.

It did seem to me from what I saw in PPR some time ago that aspies are either all-in religious or atheist agnostics. Whether that is true of aspies on the whole is another matter entirely.

I don't post in PPR anymore except a few RARE occasions, and I'll be glad to share why that is. The short story is I got bored. I'll fill in the deets later on, but not today.

I don't normally bother telling my personal spiritual journey around atheists or skeptics. I'm not interested in discussing it or debating it. There's little point (see preceding paragraph--I find those discussions tedious and boring).

But I will do this much since Campin requested my involvement. I'm a true-believer Christian who KNOWS for a FACT that there's a God. I'm not going to try to "prove" anything or give incontrovertible evidence to show God to you. I don't expect to convert anyone. I'm not shoving my beliefs down anyone's throat. But I am a firm, all-in believer. While I might not be able to adequately answer the OP's question, what I CAN do is at least share what being a religious or spiritual person is like from my perspective.

I need some time before I post about it, and it will likely be among the longest tl;dr's I've done. My first post will be about why I avoid PPR, the negative experience I've had with it, my disappointments with how PPR has IMO really gone down, and some things I've observed that has disengaged me from apologetics. I still enjoy apologetics, so it's not that. It's just there aren't any fresh challenges anymore, and I'm done with rehashing the same tired points. I'll detail that in another post when I'm ready.

There have been a series of events in my life that served to keep me on track with my faith. That will be my second post on the subject. The short story is I don't believe I could ever abandon my faith. I've seen too much, been through too many profound things that affected me deeply. Nobody has to believe me. The important thing is that it all convinced ME. Maybe there's a takeaway for someone else out there, I dunno. But if you want to know why I'm completely sold on Jesus, it's the best answer I've got.

So gimme a day or two and I'll post all of it. Thanks again, Cat! =D