Jesus was autistic!?!

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whatever it takes to suspend your beliefs to make life worth living. sure, why not?

Here is my response to this thread:

Lol!!

If you still have an open mind, and are interested in scholarly views on the subject, you might want to also have a look at the search for the historical Jesus on James Still's page at infidels dot org.

I don't know classically if this would qualify as "austism", if by autism it is meant "different than aspie", but my intuitive sense is that both JB & JC were aspies. The intensity would be appropriate to someone with a strong spiritual conviction, and the Time that they lived created certain attitudes in people, and the stubborness of JB, I can relate to that. And, to his telling off the King, which is characteristic of someone who's not going to stop speaking the Truth.

My two cents worth, anyway.

Those behaviors just strongly suggest Asperger's to me.

I can't vote, since I do not believe he existed in any form.

I have wondered about this myself. Even as a child, long before I ever heard the words autistic or Aspergers, there were some things in the Gospels that just didn't make sense--unless you are dealing with the possibility that this person was NOT what we now call neurologically normal. It's very obvious that the Gospel writers are describing a person (real or fictional) that was not always in step with others or others with him. For example there is a scene where the disciples are talking about not having brought any bread with them and Jesus starts in with "beware the leaven of the Pharisees". Huh? He was always saying the most cryptic things and not bothering to explain them, like the famous "You must be born again" scene with Nicodemus. In my opinion, Nicodemus' questions make more sense than Jesus' answers. Another thing, Jesus seems unaware that "trust me" and "you don't need to see to believe" have been favorite lines of con artists since the beginning of time; for someone who was considered to be God/the Son of God, this basic lack of knowledge of how human beings operate is rather disturbing. But typical of someone on the spectrum.

Furthermore, Dan Brown aside, Jesus appears to have spent his life a celibate in a society where nearly every adult was married by 18. His remarks on sexuality (if they are accurate) are not the remarks of a person with a strong sex drive. Compared to St. Augustine's later anguished wrestlings with the chastity/lust issue, Jesus seems asexual. In fact, sex was not even one of the Temptations in the Wilderness. That is contrary to what one might expect. But again, not uncommon for someone on the spectrum.

On the against side, Jesus was rather social; but you can't always judge a person's ASD'ness by that. And as for Christians being offended by the possibility that he was ASD, I believe that there are passages in the New Testament that imply that Jesus was not physically perfect.

I think he was a proto-rasta. It is not featured on the DSM.

His mother must have been under severe pre-natal stress, having no place to give birth - we do not know how traumatic Jesus's birth experience was but it could have contributed to him being on the spectrum.

I think Jesus had an inferiority complex (born in a shed, son of a carpenter) which led to a strong sense of social injustice, compensated with grandiose fantasies (devine) - the narcissitic injury. Coupled with public admiration for his savant skills/ "miracles" 2000 yrs ago he truly became delusional.

I worked with a women who firmly believed that whenever she formulates a thought in her mind, it doesn't come from inside her but from a supernatural being. She could never be held responsible for anything because God was making her think and do things - some pretty strange things. She was later diagnosed with schizophrenia.

I also think Jesus was misunderstood. Yes, he was the son of God, but aren't we all?

btw I believed in it all untill about a year ago when after much contemplation I realised that no one has ever been born from a virgin or raised from the dead.

Yeah, well, when you're prophesized years in advance to be the "king of kings", and three wise guys show up at your birthday...

I don't know, it would seem to me since ppl with autism have poor social skills then he wouldn't fit that spectrum. Whenever I read about him, yes he was a loner but he seemed to make many friends and followers. Whether anyone believes him to be prophet or not, he does stand out in history. What an interesting question.

I can tell you what Jesus and I have in common.
We're both very spiritual people. (from a very early age)
People either love(d) us or hate(d) us.

I can tell you what Jesus does not apper to have in common with most aspies.
Most aspies do not appear (to me) to be very spiritual people. In fact the percentage of aspies who are very spiritual appears to me to be about the same as the percentage of NTs.

I consider myself spiritual, I just never could identify myself into one of many groups of religion.

Many people say that, and it confuses me. Can you explain what you mean?

I would say yes, anything's possible; but since science and medical research weren't exactly revolutionary for the time, we will never truly know.