can ppl with AS br religious?

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You might want to read Edgar Schneider's books 'Discovering My Autism' and 'Living the Good Life With Autism' - he provides some of the best arguments and answers to tough Christian questions I've ever seen . . .
He says the same things that other people have said on this thread - that is that religion is based more on logic than emotion - I had always felt guilty that I didn't get all into religion the way other people in my church do, Christianity works for me but I've never had a 'come to Jesus' experience, either, and I'm certianly not sure it is the only way to go, but now that makes sence to me

Believing in God is the easy part, trusting the other churchnmembers (note I didn't say Christians) is the problem. Sometimes I can't help but wonder if Bibles come with 1&2 Corinthians anymore?

depends on which god, sweets. q.v. my post(s) on external vs internal locus of control (and i have no idea where they are - sorry )

can an aspie be religious? uh, excuse me but aren't you an aspie and religious? so like, duh.

SquanderedPotential, that wasn't a very nice thing to say. Everyone questions their beliefs sometimes, it's a normal phase of thinking

I am predisposed to an ascetic lifestyle such as is often found in a religious context (I should have been a monk!). But nothing else in religion makes any sense to me.

There is a lot of evidence that the universe is self consistent, and that an unending process of asking questions and revising theories is the only way to really understand it. Religion closes this off by defining rigidly and largely arbitrary areas of theory about the universe that are defined by belief.

I think religion is a pattern of thought put up by the believer to reduce fear of the unknown. I personally find anything where I can't picture absolutely everything needed to make sense of what is going on very difficult. This is what for me used to make studying really hard, because it is impossile to know everything when you start. The fragments of information with nothing to connect them make me feel uncomfortable. I would rather feel that discomfort, which is an artifact of my mind, than to close off thinking about it.

Experience suggests that what is unknown today can become known tomorrow, but only if you are free to question.

:: Mark

I think anyone, despite any disability or advantage, could be religious.

It must be possible to be both, look at the number of people who are. For me, id find that if i became religious id have to completely study all the possible religions and then choose the one that suited me best, which probably goes against so many things. but i rekon if your not brought up being religious it would be really hard to just commit yourself to a new way of living.

Sometimes I think it could be other people that makes some churches hard to go to. Some people are swift to judge a person for doing the wrong thing, and some are so divided in their beliefs with other churches. There are so many different types of people that go to church (I'm talking mainly Christian because that's what I am). I have a friend that won't go to church anymore because he said an usher threw a shoe at him, which isn't the best thing to do to be a leader and to speak out the church's beliefs. At times it could be just people who make church horrible and not want to return or maybe they have an ill view of some type of people. And, (again talking about Christianity) Christianity is hard because it's not some sort of ride that you go on and you can all of a sudden do things you couldn't do. It takes gradual, hard growth, and it depends how long to person wants to stay there before going on to the next step. Lots of times it takes huge leaps of faith, at others just a slight rebuke. I'm not sure how to explain it, but it changed me into a brand new peson. Sorry if I offended anyone; I'm not trying to look for a fight or anything.

fiona is very religious yet she is asking if an aspie can be. and there are plenty of religious aspies on this site. i'm sorry if i find that ridiculous.

Amen to that, Sean.

Animallover and georgiaspie, I've never really been emotional over religion (or anything, for that matter) either. It's logical and it's tradition for my family. It makes sense having something else besides for everyday life to believe in.

Im glad that you arent emotional over religion but i refute your claim that it is logical because it isnt sensible reasoning based on facts. Show me any facts that prove there is a god if you truly believe this.

I can't really see how you would prove the existence of a god through logic. Logic is about taking known facts and combine them so that you see which fact leads to another, and far as material evidence is concerned, there are really no known facts that can prove the existence of a god. That being said, I don't see why people with asperger's couldn't be religious. I'd rather see logic thinking as a stick in the wheel if you're going to become religious, though.

Yet, even if I am practically an atheist (or, at least I do not believe in any existing religions), I can understand why people would want to believe in a God (or Nirvana, or whatever). The thought does appeal to me, but I don't get convinced, and if I were to become religios, I'd do so only if I knew it was whole-heartedly.
It's important to respect beliefs, though. I don't refuse to go to church because I don't believe in what the church stands for. I do want to hear what they think, to make it easier to understand christians. The same applies to any other religion, really, even if it's christianity I'm most exposed to here in Norway.

There have been theories that Jesus was autistic.

hehheh Jesus? eheheheheh...i think he was a savant when it came to magic tricks

Actually, SP, there have been theories of people of biblical times using Datura, a psychoactive plant, to induce hallucinations. I think that may explain many of these "miracles", such as the fish and wine bullcrap.

(Just a side note about the wine thing, we have billboards all over the place here that show water pouring from a faucet into a wine glass, and just before the wine glass, the water turns into wine. Underneath, it says "Got Faith?" I'm really sick of seeing these religious billboards everywhere, especially when nobody allows PETA to place any. How hypocritical.)

I think Jesus' healing "miracles" were done by using various plants. Plants that, due to human stupidity, are extinct. I've no support for this theory, other than the fact that "holy miracles of curing" goes against every grain of my logical fiber. Either it was plant medicines, or it never happened. Perhaps if the bible disclosed more details, conclusions could be drawn. But I think that the writers of the bible knew that by disclosing too much information, they would have more people questioning the bible, and not have been able to establish such control.

Info on Datura: http://www.erowid.org/plants/datura/datura.shtml