AS and Christianity/Atheism

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I'm curious about this from a strictly statistical viewpoint. Every person I ever met with AS is Christian. I've never met anyone with AS who was an atheist or agnostic. Is this simply because the majority of people in the US (particularly in Texas where I live) are Christian and this statistic translates over into AS as well or if there is some other reason. I am an atheist so I know that AS is not some uniform thing, I'm just curious.

It is very much an American thing, especially so in Texas / Bible belt. Here in Europe there are many more atheists / agnostics or basically people who just don't give a damn about religion and the only time they enter a church is for weddings and funerals.

I'd say that most people who post in this (PPR) forum are atheist / agnostic. There are a few believers but they don't tend congregate here as their belief systems tend to be systematically dismantled by reason, logic and scientific facts which they either find uncomfortable or put their fingers in their ears and say lah, lah, lah God created everything 6,000 years ago and I can't hear you.

Thanks. I lived in England for about 5 years and I never met anyone that had AS, so I couldn't use that as part of my data.

I have AS, am american, AND atheist. So there.

Agnostic here. I just figure I'll find out what happens when a person dies when I die....

And I would actually disagree with Tallyman, in part at least. I have found there to be alot of christians (If only in name, and not in specific practice), on this board. Though admittedly Ive only been here for about 6? Months or so? So I may not have the experience Tallyman does with this board....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_i ... ted_States

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

So 1/88 is roughly 1.1% of the population which equals out to something like just under 3.5 Million? Feel free to do the math yourself....

Now, I dont remember enough advanced statistics to do the math for the next bit, feel free to research yourself. BUT, logically we can say that, if 80% of the entire population is Christian, then if that 1% sub-group was even minimally representative of the parent group, then something like 60%? or so could possibly be christian as well, factor in Aspies/autistics resistance to things like blind faith, against Christianities ability to deal with open questioning of its tenants and *marginal* acceptance of skeptical believers (This varies greatly from one place to place), figure something like between 40-50% of autistics Could easily be christian in the United States. This little exercise (Thats ALL this is, a *marginally* academic, unsupported, supposed, exercise) does not take into account the wide range of low functioning behaviors and problems that would pretty much preclude one from even understanding what god is, much less deciding to believe in him/her/it for that matter, amongst a great many other factors.... But I figure its a starting place of acceptance of the possibility of a higher % of christian autspies then one would otherwise think, and regardless of anything else, I believe acceptance of others choices to believe what they will (As long as it doesn't conflict with reality openly) should be pursued whenever possible.....

Aldran

I have AS and am now atheist.
For you Europeans why do most of the people reject Christianity and never set foot in a church.
Maybe the majority of Americans claim to be Christian, but they don't act like it. We are a nation full of hypocrites.

I'm a regretful atheist and have AS. I believe that a belief in God usually has a positive impact on people's lives and happiness- it did for me. But I was powerless to stop my belief from shifting to agnostic atheism as I slowly put together the facts and lack thereof. Reality is much bleaker than fantasy.

VERY true.

I live in the us and have aspergers.
I am atheist...or something.
Can we still list Jedi as our religion? I liked that one.

Theist Aspies seem to be few and far between, Asperger's being personified so often as it seems to be by "overly" (heh) logical thinking.

I've seen a couple Aspie theists here, but other than that, never.

I'm an agnostic atheist, personally.

I'm an atheist with AS, and a Texan.

In Austin it seems like everyone is an atheist. The rest of Texas... not so much.

Perhaps that's because Austin is a college town. I liked Austin. It's very liveable, but I hate the Texas heat. It seems the rest of the state are Baptists and Pentecostals.

The heat and humidity is what I don't like about Texas. I am a Lutheran, and have been for 10 years.

Texas is divided into the Catholic south, and the Baptist north. Lutherans dominate in Washington and Lee Counties, between Houston and Austin. Loving County has no churches, because of its remoteness (only about 80 people in the whole county), with the people likely driving to Midland-Odessa (nearest major community).

I forget what it's called but in Austin there is a show on every Sunday on public access, I think called The Atheist Experience, where people call in and ask questions about atheism, sometimes seeking debate. There's a pretty huge community of atheists in Austin, outside of the college environment.

If differs between European countries, but in England and France religion is pretty much regarded as irrelevant to people's daily lives. It lingers largely as a tradition and the churches generally have a dwindling elderly congregation. So some people still like to have a big white wedding in church but they won't visit the church again afterwards unless it is for someone else's wedding or a funeral. It is increasingly common for Churches not to be used for weddings or funerals either. Another aspect is that the church authorities are constantly shooting themselves in the foot and making the Church look like the evil bad guys with their opposition to things like gay partnerships or female priests etc. Throw in other factors such as knowledge of evolution make creationist biblical stories just that - stories and myths. I gather that the American education system is often weak in its science teaching, so this in part may also account for the disparity. Ongoing scandals about pedophile priests and associated cover-ups don't promote religion either.

The bottom line as I've mentioned is that the average adult in England and France view religion as irrelevant. They may be Catholic or Church of England etc on paper or in statistical terms, but that is as far as it goes.

What you Europeans need is some good, American religious TV. You need Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, and Joyce Meyer shows. Have your checkbook ready. Your radio stations need K-love and AFN, the American Family Network. I don't see why we have to keep all this craziness to ourselves.

I do not see a reason on believing in a supernatural being let alone let it dictate how I live so I view myself as either athiest or agnostic. I used to believe but once I come across reality and science I don't see the reason to anymore, dont get me wrong though the bible did teach good morals like to treat others with respect etc as well as have common sense but that is about it.