Are autism and atheism linked?

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http://www.yaxamie.com/?p=21

...interesting

interesting but this board vastly disproves that.


at least at the 100% level.

I think rdos concluded that the division pretty much reflects society in general, hence no link. If an Aspergian is religious, it's more likely to be a very devoted activity unlike modern churches, not just "I go to church or believe in God because I'm supposed to".

True, not everyone in this board is a secularist. But still, the good majority here is secular. According to this poll I did here a while ago, about 50% are atheists, 17% are agnostics and 33% are theists. In other words, 2/3 of the people here are secularists and 1/3 are theists. That's a good majority.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt36039.html

^^ compared to the normal population(in which atheists are just a minority)....this is a very big majority .

people with AS like to question things...
blind faith don't work with us

i find that people with aspergers are either totally into religion or totally not

im with you on that one.
hence, id interpret the poll numbers frankwah posted as:

83% religious
17% nonreligious

it would be interesting to know, though, how many who voted atheist actually meant that they dont believe in a god (because it doesnt matter, for example) instead of actually believing in god not existing, which a "hard", actual atheism would imply.
i have the slight guess that this would bring the nonreligious quota up a bit.

I never seen as many atheists as in these boards to be fair.

well maybe because most aspies think logically

Oh snap, you just dissed the christians!

lol

Actually, I think agnosticism is a more logical approach than atheism

Anyway, I used to think that religion was an NT thing, so I have always wondered and I still do if the more severe a person with AS/autism is, the less that person would understand religion and all their dogmas.

I actually rather liked the explanation for the possible reason that aspies are more likely to be secular given in the article. It's because NTs are more likely to think of things in terms of people. They're interested in what people think. And therefore, perhaps they're more likely to personify and ascribe personality to ordinary things that have nothing to do with people at all. I still have the tendency to do that. Sometimes if I have bad luck I unconsciously think that someone is out there doing this to me or laughing at me. But when I realize that's not the case, my anger quickly dissipates. I think we all tend to do that to some degree with aspies being somewhat less predisposed.

It kind of reminds me of watching my brother's dog bite at ice cubes when she was a puppy. Being a puppy, she didn't know anything. When she licked at ice, she wasn't expecting to cold and she somehow thought the coldness of the ice was attacking her. So she was kind of biting back at the ice like it wasn't an inanimate object, but some real environmental threat. Humans do the same thing. We ascribe meaning and personality where there is none.

Agnosticism is so lame.

People with Aspergers tend to be more certain in their world views than people without. Some might say it's our narrow world view, some might say it's our ability to focus.

I call myself an agnostic because I believe that there is some sort of creational force out there - but it is a mystery because it's beyond our ability to comprehend. Whether it be an all knowing creator, or a fourth dimensional kind of thing, or if we just have the basic idea of what "life" is wrong, we just don't know.

Not all people who have AS have been directly affected by the negative aspects of christianity so it doesnt appear to be obvious to them. So of course they are going to continue to follow. Its the way we work, sometimes all we need is a reality check to understand things through and through. Especially if its not one of our specialties.