Are most people with Asperger's Atheists?

Post Reply New Topic

My mother and her church going friends also believe in the power of faith. Who am I to question their belief.

This perhaps is something atheists miss out on is the comfort of faith based belief system. Somebody out there looking after us.

Same here. Plus I think many of them tend to focus too much on the wrong things or they are incredibly legalistic.

Or at least this seems to be true at least of many of the Christians I've met online, but then I tend to stick to mostly highly conservative forums.

This is a very good question.

However, I don't regard myself as someone "with" Aspergers tacked onto the end of me.
I see myself as a whole person who doesn't understand or like it when other people try and "stamp" a label onto my brain.

In my education, I studied a lot of science and read some Dawkins so I regarded myself as an atheist for a while. What made me become an "atheist"? Peer pressure from home, uncomfortable experiences with Christianity at school and my enjoyment of the science curriculum I guess. I've always been curious about how things work in the physical world. I enjoyed doing experiments, so "Godless" "atheism" and rational thought seemed like a good fit for me.

Now I'm starting to wonder what "religion" I really am and what the definition of "religion" actually is!


Video games, fictional stories, TV shows, cartoons and films can have a lot of profound themes in them and "religious/faith" behavioural elements in them:

-Life/death/rebirth
-Alternate realities
-trance states
-Manipulation of objects/interfaces to experience these alternate realities
-upper and lower worlds
-The Hero's journey
-Fantastic mythical characters/superheroes/archetypes
-Groups, communities and fandoms dedicated to exploring a story
-Experts within these groups
-Social stories that explore issues of morality
-Complex metaphors, poetry, songs and allegories
-Faith and suspension of disbelief


When I was little, I used to enjoy reading fictional stories; reading comic books; making up stories with toys; watching cartoons and playing video games. Yet I didn't regard myself as
"religious" in the traditional sense even though I attended church when asked and many of my friends were Christian. I didn't hate going to church either. I enjoyed singing carols, studying the fascinating architecture, learning about the history and looking at the beautiful stained glass windows.

I enjoyed learning about different religions and cultures at school.
I didn't enjoy having certain beliefs forcefully "rammed down my throat" by extreme believers however. Sometimes I wondered if some of this time it would've been more productive for me to study science, maths or write my own original stories.

Many people I used to know had celebrities that they admired and "worshipped" too. Modern Celebrities weren't mentioned in religious class. The celebrities would have to be at least 2000 years old before they even "got a look in".

Maybe the narrow textbook definition of "religion" doesn't really do justice to the vast variety of belief systems out there in the world evolving today?

I don't know.
Many genus and species names of organisms have their origins in classical mythology.
So ironically, if you aren't at least familiar with the "fictional" and "irrational" ancient religious stories you're going to struggle with "scientific" and "rational" biological classification!

I realise that this is a sensitive topic, but many rational sciences like Chemistry have their
origins in mystical practices like alchemy. Modern Stoichiometry has its orgins in Alchemical practices. Some scientists in the past even dabbled in a bit of Astrology in their spare time. Some of them may have been labeled "irrational" if they had been alive today.

I sometimes meditate and read meditation texts. My rational mind likes to label these activities as brain training exercises that calm me down and make me think more clearly. I wonder if I'm reading about a kind of philosophy or method of thought.

I don't usually think of myself as "religious" when I read a book, watch TV or attend a ceremony with a group of people, but perhaps I should. I don't know.

What I do know is that I get really miserable and my social skills suffer if I don't retreat into the world of "fantasy", belief and metaphor from time to time. Then again, I often crave the "rational" world of logic and scientific processes. I seem to need both belief and proof to function as a healthy person.

As for the question: "Am I religious?"
I have no idea.
I am a human.

I am trying to keep an open mind and respect other people's realities/traditions.

I believe that this: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta ... m-physics/
would be the something beyond --- well almost --- all human comprehension follow links.

Here is the core: That is, giving up space and time as fundamental constituents of nature and figuring out how the Big Bang and cosmological evolution of the universe arose out of pure geometry.

Pure geometry is a relative of logic. Logic --- logos. Or as believers would say "in the beginning is the word..."

I first saw this concept in a book by by Wheeler & Thorn on general relativity in the early 70's where, in trying to get to the bottom of things they kind of concluded that the cause of everything was physics as a manifistation of logic/pre geometry/calculus of propositions.

Physics explains mechanisms and motion of matter but not the cause...

I could be wrong, but it appears to me that you did not bother to read the original link. Either that, or you have a kind of variable definition of cause. Are you claiming that when accident investigation experts determine the cause of a crash that they are explaining that crash in terms of the flying spaghetti monster kicking the vehicle / aircraft in question? Are you claiming that only intelligent agents can cause things?

Other than that I was at a loss to understant what your pithy statement was meant to convey.

I am atheist, I find the idea of a God who would permit his own son to be murdered by his creations, and who supposedly loves said creations but sends them to burn in hell for all eternity if they fail to worship him correctly to be very silly, especially when he is said to be forgiving. I never understood why a being as powerful as God would care about creatures as comparatively puny as humans worshiping him, it would sort of be the equivalent of an ant worshipping a human; insignificant and pointless. Another thing I don't understand is when people say that evolution can't be real because humans are too complex to have come from single-celled organisms. Humans couldn't come from a single cell but the most powerful being in all of history, time and space can just blip into existence from nothing? How does that work?

I liked that. You might find that this quote from Wolfgang Pauli, and the associated story to be of value. "That is not even wrong" That phrase has become one of my favorites.

Enter the two words orwells boot into any search engine. The first item back will be mine, usually under the name factotum666. My conclusion. after about 6000 words is that evolution works to make people stupid (unable or unwilling to learn from the physical world) and authoritarian --- usually the obediant form. Part of that is that people tell themselves stories to explain the world. If you do some searching on the internet you will see that few people, especially NT people, use logic to construct those stories, and your studies in psychology will probably have told you that most people are anything but logic. Their logic circuits, if they have any, come into play only to justify decisions that they made based on emotions and what their elders taught them. Constructive feedback from orwells boot article is welcome. Given your background you probably will have some.

Also explore E-prime.

I am as Atheist as they come. I also like Satanism (no they do not believe in Satan or any deity), but Satanism follows of set of principles without worshiping an actual deity, kind of like Buddhism. Really, Satanism (LaVeyan) is just a form of Aggressive Atheism. I fall into that category.

If there is a god, he is one cruel mother f****r.

I'm atheist. I can't believe in God when there are so many disagreements among Christians about what God wants. Many interpretations portray God as someone that I hate - gays, non-believers, and people of different faiths are said to go to hell by many. If God really is a hateful being, most people in Japan and other countries will go to hell due to not being Christian. On the flip side, others say that gays, non-believers, and people of different faiths don't go to hell as long they live sinless lives. So many contradictions.

I can't speak for all Aspies or autistics, but I am definitely an Atheist. I find the idea of some almighty creator or god to be ridiculous. Religion has caused so many more problems than it solves. Not only that, but the theory of evolution has been proven multiple times, and the aspects we don't know we will in time. I believe in logic and science.

Everybody is an atheist to most gods or most peoples versions of their version of god. So "do you believe in 'MY GOD' or not seems to be the wrong question. Here are some relevant simple statements.
1. Religion of some form is, with few exceptions of a few small tribes, ubiquitous. Evolution does not act in a way that creates behaviors that do not promote survival.

2. Perhaps the key question is not "do you believe in some kind of god" but do you think that this physical universe that you see is really all that there is and,

3. when you die does every semblence of 'the essence of you' cease to exist other than in other peoples memories? What evidence do you have to support your position?

4. Before answering did you read my link https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta ... m-physics/ ? Did it make sense to you?

5. Perhaps not altogether to pertinant but did you ever think why science as we know it came out of 15th century europe even though China was way ahead of Europe in technology and related knowledge?

6. look at who the great scientific minds of middle ages were. They were all religious men, and often religion was more important in their lives than science.

I just wasn't raised with religion. I believe science is the only way this world can really change and evolve, as religious people are clinging to outdated worldviews. Religion is the main reason why people believe the human condition will always be the same, and as someone who believes in technological change and progress, including human upgrades through technology, I am against this view.

I'm an atheist.

I was pretty much raised in a secular household. My dad's side of the family is quite religious, and my mom's side isn't. We never went to church, prayed before meals or before bed. In fact, my mom has never mentioned God to me in my life and my dad has only mentioned God once. When I was around 7 years old, I asked him how fish got into lakes when they're not connected to the ocean. He just said "God." These days, I think that type of answer to a question like that is religious talk for "I don't know."

Probably, because autistic people tend to use logical reasoning. Kind of hard for people who use logical reasoning to believe in the magical man in the sky thing.