To religious people: How do you explain your ASD?

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Good question. Jesus was asked a similar question by the disciples, when they came upon a blind man. Their religious background led them to believe that if someone was disabled, they must be somehow to blame... or if not them, then somebody. In other words, they saw disability as a punishment.

Jesus on the other hand, knew better. The disciples said, "who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus replied, "neither this man nor his parents sinned. He was born to make manifest the glory of God."

And if you know the story, Jesus went up to the man and healed him... and the man actually was one of the bravest and most courageous witnesses of Christ that is mentioned in the gospels. He's standing there, abandoned by his own mum and dad who are too scared to speak up for him, with the religious authorities preparing to put him out of the congregation, and everyone saying that maybe he was never blind, yaddah yaddah yaddah... And the man says, "all I know is that I was once blind and now I see."

He did indeed make manifest the glory of God.

I think that people with disabilities are gifted with a unique insight on the world. We stand outside the institutions, and aren't intimidated when we're thrown out of congregations. We were never really in them to begin with. This makes it easier to recognise the divine when He comes for us.

I don't see being different in my mental processes as a disadvantage, when I consider the benefits it's given me.

I once was blind, now I see. I wouldn't change how He made me for the world.

Exactly well put. mgran I agree with you also. Don't look at the negatives of aspergers, think of all the positive things you are blessed with. God loves everyone.

There's another possibility to consider, that goes with Taoism specifically. I'm horrible at explaining this, but here goes: When a Taoist attains the Tao, they cease becoming "them" and become the Tao (although, technically speaking, they already were). Since the Tao is everything and nothing, you could say that it's within us at all times. I firmly believe that Lao Tzu was autistic, and that autistics have an advantage in attaining the Tao. Hence, the percentage of people who attain the Tao who are autistic is higher than the percentage of autistic people. As more autistic people attain the Tao, autistic thought tends to spread through those who are a part of the Tao (which is, once again, everyone and everything).

...So there's that. Looking it over, it's a horrible explanation, but it's really the best I can do, considering the nature of the Tao and how these ideas don't lend themselves well to explanation.

It is God's Will.

ruveyn

With the discovery that I'm on the spectrum, I no longer feel that I have to go through life defending myself or thinking that something is dreadfully wrong with me just because I'm a little different from the "norm," or at least according to what some people call "norm." And so I simply explain that my autism is just a way of life, and that life is still quite popular with me.

From a christian perspective, I believe it could be the same as asking, why diseases exist or why death exists or why suffering exists?

According to the belief, in the beginning, everything was to be perfect, death didn't exist until after the original sin, so pretty much all of it could be reduced into that.

I'm still not sure that being aspie or auty is so bad. Perhaps we are differently mentally abled... but who is to say that "NTs" fit the original master plan either? Could be that they're missing on something we have, just as we miss on something they have.

Today my son came back from school, having had mouth wash sprayed into his face by an NT boy. The NT boy is obviously not "right" to behave in such a way. He's the one who is meant to be more intuitive and sympathetic, etc, than my son.

Yet my son is always late when walking home, because he watches the ground, picks up worms or snails to stop them getting injured on the pavement. So he empathises with those animals. He comes back when he's been bullied, and explains why he's sorry for the bully... He expresses his sympathy in a way which seems odd to NTs, but I know is utterly genuine. He didn't want to report this boy, because he felt sorry for him.

So tell me, whose the one with the mental problem... the "ordinary boy" who sprays stuff in someone's eye because he's "weird", or the "weird" kid who feels sorry for the bully, and tries to understand him, and give him another chance?

Personally, I don't think there's anyone on the planet today who isn't messed up in their head someway. Auties and Aspies at least think about how they think, and we do see things differently. Honestly, I believe that's a good thing. God made a complicated, complex world... He wants people to view it from different angles.

Don't you think?