Aspergers and Religion

[Spinosaurus kin]

I was raised as a United Methodist but chose my title as an agnostic who believes in a higher power in control of everything great and small,but refuses to give it a name or gender in the event that the higher power may not like it.

The term for a belief like that is an agnostic theist. Agnostic is just the term pertaining to your confidence in that belief - "someone who believes that the supernatural is unknown/unknowable." They're not mutually exclusive. Hope this helps!

 

[KassieMac]

Corny joke alert:

How would you describe a dyslexic, Agnostic insomniac?

Spoiler: Spoiler Alert

Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there really is a Dog.

Don't blame me … I warned you it was corny. Hehe

 

[Nitro]

The term for a belief like that is an agnostic theist. Agnostic is just the term pertaining to your confidence in that belief - "someone who believes that the supernatural is unknown/unknowable." They're not mutually exclusive. Hope this helps!

I stand corrected then...thank you

 

[Spinning Compass]

Did you grow up in a religious household?
Yes, I grew up in a Catholic household at a time when the Church was making the transition from Latin to the vernacular. It was in some respects a very confusing time as a formerly united Church began splintering into factions, each claiming to represent the will of the Pope.

What role does religion play in your life?
In my teens I got involved in the Jesus People movement and went rather overboard, withdrawing from everything that I or my group considered secular. At first my parents approved but as they saw what it was doing to me socially and academically they pulled me out of the group. After that I experimented with other churches thinking that I could have the best of both the Catholic and Protestant worlds. I kept searching for answers to why I was having so many problems socially not realizing that I had Aspergers. I finally turned to science and found answers there that made more sense. I now consider myself an agnostic.

Do you regularly participate in religious life, and do you do so in community with other people or in a more solitary fashion?
Yes, about a year ago I joined a Unitarian-Universalist congregation, which if you had told me 30 years ago that I would find myself there I would have laughed and said absolutely no way. I find however, that the freedom U-Uism offers fits my Aspergers mind and personality better than more mainstream versions of Christianity.

Have you been accepted by people of your faith, or largely rejected, or do they just find you "querky"? I have more or less been accepted in that I am encouraged to take part in church activities and as long as I spout the "party line." The minute I try to reconcile what I have been asked to believe with my own experience, that changes. A big issue in my life has been sexuality and dating. I have never married and I believe that it is in part due to the fact that I bought into the whole premarital chastity thing without stopping to think that those who encouraged me to live that way were all safely married and did not have to face the issue of what happens when you cannot find a partner who also believes the same thing. It may be true that Asperger's played a role in my remaining single; however, if you look around you will find that many congregations have at least one aging virgin and no corresponding single male members for her to socialize with, let alone marry. I have found that people in the church are very uncomfortable when that subject is brought up. I do not feel so out-of-place in the Unitarian Church.

What do you think of NTs and religion versus ASDs and religion? I think with many NT's religion is a social thing, even the ones who claim to be born again and have Jesus as their personal savior. As long as you say and do the right things when you are around other "believers" you will be accepted as one of them. I think people with ASD's are more prone to have problems with religion or at least certain forms of it because we tend to go more deeply and aren't satisfied with superficial answers. Or we can easily be sucked up into forms of religion that are not good for us, for example, joining a church that encourages withdrawal from worldly activities, when what we really need is less withdrawal and more getting out and interacting. Of course I am speaking mainly of Christianity; I have no experience of other religions. Like ASD, religion is also a spectrum, ranging from monotheistic and polytheistic to even non-theistic.

Do you have any unconventional views--like maybe Jesus was an Aspie?!
I have often wondered about that. Even before I knew about Aspergers because a major theme of the Gospels is that he often seemed to be out of touch with his disciples; they would be operating at one level and he would be on an entirely different plane. They were constantly misunderstanding what he had to say.

 

[Rob]

No Jesus=aspie stuff, but the Bible tells us that (sloppy paraphrase here, though I'm 100% sure it's correct in spirit, if not jot and tiddle), "He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" "He was despised and rejected" The Bible presents Him as a man without falsehood or ulterior motive, someone who told no lies, and said what he meant, He did no one any harm. He spoke the truth, without intending to hurt anyone. He was unwilling to alter his behavior to improve his reputation among others. He lived His life according to his convictions, beliefs and principles, which He could never have betrayed, yet was almost universally misunderstood, and usually interpreted in the worst of all possible ways (sound familiar?)

Wow! I believe EXACTLY what you said in the paragraph above. Jesus was indeed a man of sorrows, and told the truth at any cost. When he was reviled, despised of men, he did not avenge those who treated Him so.
He shared the griefs of others. Could Jesus sympathize with sorrowing and misunderstood souls if he came as a king dressed in royal robes? Of course not!

 

[gregmcph]

Did you grow up in a religious household?
A very conventional Catholic household. Not deeply religious. It's just what people did.

What role does religion play in your life?
My wife is very Catholic religious. Sings in the Choir. Goes to Cells. And her friends are all Churchies. And her family is largely 3rd world hardcore Catholics. Those guys take it very seriously.

Do you regularly participate in religious life, and do you do so in community with other people or in a more solitary fashion?
It wore off me. Once I was old enough to see that "The things they say in the Bible, they aint necessarily so.", I gradually questioned my assumptions. I discovered that the people who taught me didn't really know any more than I did. The Pope doesn't have a telephone line to Heaven. He's hoping and guessing too. But I am surrounded by people who take it all seriously, and good for them. It gives them a life to live and they are good people. No good in offending them. So I keep my opinions largely to myself.

Have you been accepted by people of your faith, or largely rejected, or do they just find you "querky"?
Well, yes, I am quirky. Weird. And on the outside because I wont play the ritual games. You are all doing a Rosary? Okay well, I'll sit here awkwardly or go for a walk. That feels pretty separating.

What do you think of NTs and religion versus ASDs and religion?
I figure Religion is about explaining that subconscious animal inside of us. That built in madness that makes us do illogical, sometimes stupid bad things. Religion will blame it on the Devil and offer you Forgiveness from Jesus. When you aren't in control of yourself, you need that redemption from someone to get by.
I think the Straights have a wilder rollercoaster of Emotions, Lusts, Desires, Hate going on, so they need Religion more.

Also, I have only a limited amount of Empathy in my body. I love my wife, my kids, my dog, my mother... that's as much as I can deal with. Don't ask me to extend my emotions towards Jesus and Mary too. I don't seem to be around very much, they don't do much for me. They already have to adoration of millions. They'll do fine without me bothering them.

 

[lostinspace]

Just for the record, the whole "Satanist" thing with the "Satanic Bible" and so on was a hoax designed to make Christians look stupid by falling for it. Fall for it they did.

 

[ShatteredUniverse]

Did you grow up in a religious household? Yes. Most definitely, yes.

What role does religion play in your life? In no way, shape, or form. If "reductionism" was a religion, then I'd be devoutly religious. I'm an adherent of the scientific method and rationality, and proud of it.

Do you regularly participate in religious life, and do you do so in community with other people or in a more solitary fashion? Absolutely not, though (unlike some atheists I know of,) I don't hate on people who do.

Have you been accepted by people of your faith, or largely rejected, or do they just find you "quirky"? N/A

What do you think of NTs and religion versus ASDs and religion? No clue.

Do you have any unconventional views--like maybe Jesus was an Aspie?! While I'm inclined to believe Jesus was a real, historical figure, I don't ascribe any supernatural qualities to said person any more than I believe in anything supernatural in general.

 

[dragonwolf]

Did you grow up in a religious household? Yes and no, depending on the time frame in question. At my early childhood home, we went to Catholic mass every Sunday, participated in the Catholic rituals, but the household itself wasn't really religious. When my mom and I moved out of there, her own Protestant upbringing started shining through, and church became more of a thing (Wednesday evenings, twice on Sundays, camp, VBS, etc), as did more open talk about Christianity, the Bible, and whatnot.

What role does religion play in your life? It's varied over the years. I'm no longer Christian, but a follower of the Norse gods. I see "religion" (or rather, spirituality) as a deeply personal thing, and a relationship with one's chosen deities. Even if it's a rubber duck thing, I've found that seeking help/guidance from a given deity helps to get through some various tough situations.

Do you regularly participate in religious life, and do you do so in community with other people or in a more solitary fashion? It's a bit of both. Like Christianity, there are a lot of "denominations" even among followers of a given pantheon. I'm part of a group that, were we Christians, would be akin to a "non-denominational church." We all conduct our spirituality slightly differently and take what we will from what we learn, and about once a month or so, we get together and do group things. Sometimes it's just drinking and having fun ("fellowship," basically, with a Viking twist), sometimes it's rituals in accordance with the time of year. A lot of time, though, is spent in a more solitary fashion for me, right now.

Have you been accepted by people of your faith, or largely rejected, or do they just find you "quirky"? I've been pretty well accepted. The group as a whole is a lot more guarded in things (there's a lot of personal stuff and need for trust, especially for some of the summer rituals, so they're slow to let people in to the more inner circles), which is okay with me, because there's not as much expectation to be super-involved right away.

What do you think of NTs and religion versus ASDs and religion? *shrug* Both groups are too large and diverse to really form any kind of thought that would pertain to even a fraction of them. That said, one thing I've seen, from reading through this thread and from my experience, it seems that the focus and importance of things is a bit different between the two groups. On this board, at least, any focus on differences is in a sort of "comparative religions" type of way -- objective assessments of differences and sharing of interesting facts or perceptions of something about a given belief. This is one of the few places I've been where people from all parts of the religious spectrum can talk about their beliefs and even about others' beliefs, and it doesn't degrade into fighting matches (I know the rules actively discourage it, but from what I've seen, there hasn't really been a need to take moderation action, which I've found common even in other places that have similar rules).

In contrast, a lot of NTs I've met put more stock in their differences than just about anything else. I've seen people visibly recoil when my beliefs were brought up (one time, while I was still Christian, it was a Wiccan who recoiled, in no small part out of fear for how I'd react when I found out his beliefs; another time, it was a Christian, who recoiled when she found out I wasn't, because she thought I'd corrupt her with my evil views or something like that). Even my own mother, who's very much "live and let live," drew the line when looking for a new church after we moved when I was a teenager (to be fair, it was kind of a crucial detail to a Protestant/Pentecostal Christian -- the existence/role of the Holy Ghost and the meaning of speaking in tongues). There was also a lot of propaganda spread by my last Christian church about pagans that, quite frankly, disgusted me, because I knew they were bald-faced lies, and instead of looking at them objectively, they were demonized and their practitioners were painted as demon worshipers who used Halloween to spread their evil and sacrificed newborn infants. (Seriously, WTF?)

Do you have any unconventional views -- like maybe Jesus was an Aspie? I don't know if it counts as "unconventional," but I think that there is a lot we can learn from the sacred texts of what we consider "religions," beyond the usual moral and ethic stuff. The ancient people had a lot of knowledge and wisdom that we are often quick to write off, because they were "primitive" (since they didn't have things like light bulbs and cars). I think there are a lot of parallels between the stories of things like other realms or worlds (including not only the Norse idea of the Nine Worlds, but also the different realms in Judeo-Christian, Grecco-Roman, and other beliefs) and the multiverse theory and whatnot. There are a lot of similarities between the writings even of disparate people, which I think stem from similar observations that they explained in their stories. And, of course, the stories say a lot about the conditions in which people lived ("worldwide" floods in regions that probably experienced a lot of flooding, creating the world from an ice giant from the regions that spent most of the year under snow, etc).

A priest once was discussing the sudden proliferation of 'Jesus Fish' on so many cars (yes, I'm showing my age) ... his comment was "If they can't tell you're a Christian by the way you act ... and by the way you drive ... then a whole school of fish is not going to help you!"

That is awesome, I love it!

 

[emilylovesbooks]

I have a question for you all! Since I have known only a handful of lovely ASD people, I am curious as to how ASD people deal with the issue of religion (Christianity or not; I am a Christian UMC pastor, but I'm not trying to evangelize here, simply interested since it's one of my biggest interests, obviously!). Did you grow up in a religious household? What role does religion play in your life? Do you regularly participate in religious life, and do you do so in community with other people or in a more solitary fashion? Have you been accepted by people of your faith, or largely rejected, or do they just find you "querky"? What do you think of NTs and religion versus ASDs and religion? Do you have any unconventional views--like maybe Jesus was an Aspie?! Any insights, ideas, observations, experiences or opinions are greatly appreciated!!!!

I'm a Christian, in fact very shortly I will be going on a mission trip to Haiti, which a lot of people didn't think I could do because I'm autistic. It's definitely out of my comfort zone, but I think it will be good.
My main issue with religion is that I'm usually accepted into the "smart" communities because of the gifts that came with my autism, and as soon as they find out that I'm religious they automatically de-credit my intelligence. Many of my friends are athiest because of my traits, but, you know, to each their own.

 

[dudeman]

I'm usually accepted into the "smart" communities because of the gifts that came with my autism, and as soon as they find out that I'm religious they automatically de-credit my intelligence.

It's nothing personal, I'm sure. No offense intended to anyone here, but these days, there are so many Christians out there who are, to be frank, complete morons that it's hard for some people to believe there are Christians who aren't. They're a minority, certainly, but they are there.

What kind of work do you do on these missions if you don't mind my asking? The church mom took us to as kids was of the opinion that if you want to go and build a school or something, that's great, but you shouldn't force the locals to listen to any preaching because that does nothing to help the cause. If they want to hear what you have to say, let them come to you. I agree with that opinion.

 

[Tarragon]

It's nothing personal, I'm sure. No offense intended to anyone here, but these days, there are so many Christians out there who are, to be frank, complete morons that it's hard for some people to believe there are Christians who aren't. They're a minority, certainly, but they are there.

What kind of work do you do on these missions if you don't mind my asking? The church mom took us to as kids was of the opinion that if you want to go and build a school or something, that's great, but you shouldn't force the locals to listen to any preaching because that does nothing to help the cause. If they want to hear what you have to say, let them come to you. I agree with that opinion.

Ok, before the stuff hits the fan...

My interpretation of this is as follows:

Religious people have, throughout history, been arguing with everyone about who is right and who is wrong. Someone who has no religious beliefs at all generally (though not always) wont want to argue with religious people. This is probably because of a few reasons:-

1) Religious arguments have fuelled terrible episodes throughout history, including violence.
2) It gets very tiring listening to a religious person argue that the single religion they happen to have chosen is the "right one" and every other religion is invalid.
3) There are, frankly, better things to do with your time than be drawn in a ridiculous conversation/argument with absolutely no chance of a compromise solution being found between the religious mindset and the non religious mindset.

So, I think that is the reputation religion has in society. Not a particularly good one. And, yes, people who are religious seem to forget the bad stuff that has happened and concentrate on the good. So, the arguing beings.....

That's all I want to say really. Before people start arguing(!!)

If someone wants to go help build a well in another country, good for them. If the price tag is being converted into a new religion, is it a price worth paying? Ah well...

And, no, I'm not religious. I enjoy the logic and impartiality of science. Scientists argue too, but all in a common cause. Religions are all incompatible with each other, which makes harmony next to impossible.

 

[Stacey]

My mother never took me to church. One day she handed me a childrens bible and said "your choice what you decide". I thought Jesus was a bit like santa and believed it was a weird fairytale. Then I didn't give it much thought until I reached my twenties. I don't attend church regularly because I like to run off straight after the service. People find that socially unacceptable. I don't understand why everyone wants tea and biscuits afterwards. It's so awkward.
So I attend communion when I can stomach the nerve. I just walk into a random church on a random Sunday. That's how I do church.

 

[Judge]

I don't attend church regularly because I like to run off straight after the service. People find that socially unacceptable. I don't understand why everyone wants tea and biscuits afterwards. It's so awkward.

Fellowship and social rituals. The first and foremost reason I don't prefer to be involved in specific religions. At least now I clearly understand why. My belief in a deity doesn't require fellowship or social rituals.

 

[wyverary]

Another gentle reminder to everyone -

I've not seen any problems yet, but it would be best to keep this thread as close as possible to the intent of the initial post. Veering too far off-topic when it comes to these issues can sometimes lead to arguments and mud-slinging.

Thanks.

General Rules & Guidelines | AspiesCentral.com

 

[Grumpy Cat]

Corny joke alert:

How would you describe a dyslexic, Agnostic insomniac?

Spoiler: Spoiler Alert

Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there really is a Dog.

Don't blame me … I warned you it was corny. Hehe

Love that one!!!

 

[AsIstAga]

I was raised as a United Methodist but chose my title as an agnostic who believes in a higher power in control of everything great and small,but refuses to give it a name or gender in the event that the higher power may not like it.
Something set this all in order as it would be impossible for it to be random.
My spirituality is there,but not well defined and without structure common to religious beliefs.
Religion to me is to do well by others,remain as honest as possible and talk to the power in thoughts whenever my thoughts lead me to ask for guidance.
The practice of religion has way too many variables involved to choose which one is correct so I believe I have all bases covered in my choice of faith.

I was raised Unitarian Universalist...for anyone unfamiliar, it holds many of the Christian values like 'love thy neighbor' and 'don't do bad stuff on purpose...' However it also comes with an open mind and willingness to allow the people of the church to, in a sense, make up their own minds/theology in a supportive atmosphere. (Or at least that was my understanding of the Unitarian structure when I was young and going through the motions there.) I like my quoted posters views due to the way I was raised...I prefer to let every person make up in their mind what works best/fits for them. The higher power that has been there from the "beginning" and will remain there till the "end" is toooo complex for us little ants on this planet to ever fully understand with our brains, as developed as they may be! Other cultures and tribes have tried to put such a complex creator/creators into their own minds imaginative display throughout the continents and history! Different cultures belief systems interest me greatly! I hold a theory (as it can never be proven) that every single religion/theology that ever was or will be has part of the puzzle to the TRUTH and if we could all stop fighting over who is right and who is dumb...we maybe could all come a step or two closer to further understanding! ...but other religions usually treat each other like the conservatives and liberals go at it!!! Frustrating, isn't it!? ...Happiness to all!

 

[emilylovesbooks]

Corny joke alert:

How would you describe a dyslexic, Agnostic insomniac?

Spoiler: Spoiler Alert

Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there really is a Dog.

Don't blame me … I warned you it was corny. Hehe

I love that one lol

 

[Granta_Omega]

I often wonder how someone with Asperger's Syndrome looking at the details and logic could even arrive at the conclusion to believe in any religion. It is all emotional appeal and fear mongering, and is completely without evidence. There is no evidence that Jesus Christ even existed, and the Bible is a book that promotes violence, rape, murder, misogyny, slavery, cannibalism, and tells us we are condemned to hell for not believing in god because Adam and Eve ate some fruit from a tree when they weren't supposed to.

I did grow up in a religious household, and I believed in strongly. I also was too smart to know that the amount of people that believe something has nothing to do with whether it was true or not. I find that an open mind and being able to see religion objectively makes much more sense.

 

[Loomis]

I often wonder how someone with Asperger's Syndrome looking at the details and logic could even arrive at the conclusion to believe in any religion. It is all emotional appeal and fear mongering, and is completely without evidence. There is no evidence that Jesus Christ even existed, and the Bible is a book that promotes violence, rape, murder, misogyny, slavery, cannibalism, and tells us we are condemned to hell for not believing in god because Adam and Eve ate some fruit from a tree when they weren't supposed to.

I did grow up in a religious household, and I believed in strongly. I also was too smart to know that the amount of people that believe something has nothing to do with whether it was true or not. I find that an open mind and being able to see religion objectively makes much more sense.

Intelligent people can view the bible in different ways. You are correct that there is much violence in the bible but context is critical. I would suggest your views are strident and can easily be the end of this thread. Discussions of religion are only allowed on this forum if they remain civil and respectful. Please try to be non-confrontational when discussing religious beliefs.