Aspies are spiritual or atheist while NT are religious?

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Sorry for crazy title. And it is a prejudice too.
Every Aspie are different so not easy to generalize
but I have the impression that many of us Aspies shun
the "forced" togetherness of religions and either
stay out of it altogether or maybe chose some
more solitaristic spiritual way of life? Doing it alone?

Am I too stereotypical? I guess that words like religious
are very ambiguous and not crystal clear.

I refer to very noisy foot stomping and hand clapping
and outgoing "revivals" where one behave more like
a "Rock Concert" or like on a Team Sport Event where
everybody cheer the Home Team on and yell and shout
kind of religious togetherness.

I have the impression that the majority of us aspies don't like
that kind of orgiastic expressions of togetherness?

To be personal. I where 12 years old and our Swedish Boy Scout
Soccer Team had met a Norwegian team and we won the game.

One where supposed to stand up and sing the National Anthem together.
I sat down and showed my non-agreement with the whole crazy thing.
To sing the National Anthem where to me as an Internationalist a betrayal
of the peace movement or something.

I where very idealistic as a 12 year old kid. Stop the War and so on.

Now as an old retired person I actually long for some kind of togetherness.
I am not into spiritual solitareness at all. I am no Monk or Eremit.

I can not say that I am a "joiner" either. I am very bad at social gatherings.
So what are your experience of noisy togetherness. They feel awkward don't they?

Hmmm... definitely congregate with atheists. Look up cryonics too. It's way better than religion.

Well If God was real I think he hates my guts and sends alot of bad fortune my way and sending the message to the rest of the world to hate judge and ridicule me because I am different. I know It sounds crazy but that is my take on it.

here is a piece of unsolicited advice from someone older than you. Try not to feel too sorry for yourself. Life is basically unfair, so accept that and Push On.

ruveyn

That wasn't nice said ;P you don't have to talk to people like that.

Fully embracing the fact (sorry if this offends, but it's a fact to me) that there is no God (or going the deist route, that the only thing "God" did was create the universe, and after that he/she/it stepped back and let it run its course with no (or little) intervening-- what I take as, if this God isn't active, then what's the point of worshipping him in the first place) helped me immensely.

This means that there is no God who seems to love everyone but you. It's not your fault. You didn't do anything to upset "him"-- you can't upset someone who doesn't exist.

If that's a scary thought, comfort yourself that there are thousands and thousands of people out there -- like me -- who love you because you are a fellow human being (and Aspie!) going through life's infinite struggle. We don't have to send any of our love off to some fake being, that seems to reside anywhere else but here! We can keep it all right here on earth, helping out our fellow brothers and sisters.

pretty much this ^

Those are beautiful sentiments, beautifully expressed. Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Thank you, Rocky! I just can't believe I'm not alone anymore! I thought I was the only non-human experimental being on earth

And I also believe this world could really change for the better if everyone let go of this monotheistic obsession (for once, it's not us ahaha) and kept their love here on earth instead of sending out to an invisible friend. In theory, I guess organized religion is a good idea if it empowers people to live their lives as 'good' (I think Jesus Christ, if he really existed, was a righteous dude who had some great teachings about being a "good" person. Too bad he had to end every lesson with, "and BTW you're kind of crap unless you give glory to my dad")... but in reality the scales are way tipped on the side of the violence, hate, repression, genocide, and scandal that the big organized religions have brought us for thousands of years now. Why don't people see it? BIG SIGH.

I trust that there is no god out there in the Universe
or any god behind of beyond the universe.

But I do trust that humans are biologically
rather prone or or vulnerable to being religious.

So God and religion will be with us for a long time.
That does not mean that we as individuals have to
deal with god or religion at all. Personally we can
stay out of it.

But humanity as such would be better off if the danger
of cults and fundy religion could be kep within bounds.

As it is now the political power that the fundy religions have
is very bad because it makes contraceptions hard to get in
some countries. Sex education is difficult to get out due to
constant barriers set up by the politicians that need the votes
of the believers.

So to leave God in the hand of the "true" believers seems not
to be a good way to deal with it.

You and I maybe are not the best persons to deal with this
but we could support that there is such research and actions
that do try to modernize the very conservative churches so
they get more liberal views.
That is at least my perspective on it just now

Ruveyn, I was kind of hurt by that comment but you know what, you are right about that what I said was an observation on it anyways and I will continue to push on. Emilyrianna I am so glad you told me that for that I am releaved that there is no god I am happy there are people who may still love me even If I am an aspie. It is hard sometimes and with the way the world is it makes me want to be a hateful monster but part of me still does not because I still have compassion for others.

Did you know that compassion and $3.61 will get you a small regular coffee and two Old Fashioned donuts at your local Dunkin' Donuts (tm) shop?

ruveyn

I am a religious Aspie.

I sorta get what you're saying. I never got mad at singing the national anthem and stuff like that as a kid, as to me I have sorta the opposite extreme. My ideation is a bit more the libertarian Ayn Rand kinda rugged individualist thing. So I like nations being sovereign and having the ability to carry their own affairs out, without the fake unity that comes through things like the EU and UN and the like. I probably get that ideation from my father, who went to John Birch Society meetings and stuff, so yeah.

But as far as like, religious experience. I agree and disagree. "Aspies" I think more so than NTs can very easily be good at ritualistic religious things, and then once you get into the realm of theology, that's something that pretty much needs to be a special interest. Usually most any religious scholar will have some "Aspie" tendencies at the very least, just for the ability to recall information and present it. Then it can get to the point of absurdity, in some circumstances. I had one pastor at my old Fundie Baptist Church who split the church because he believed the Bible taught geocentricity, and that if you didn't believe in geocentricity, then you're a heretic. So it's not necessarily a "good thing" as it can lead to that, but again I'd guess most religious scholars are Aspies. There's a joke that seminary is the place people go to who are less cool than people who go to Star Trek and comic book conventions. I'd say that's true.

For me, I was raised Fundamental Baptist, then refused to go to church for 6-7 years, then when I went back to church, I went to a Charismatic church, basically similar to Pentecostal churches. Hand clapping, hands raised, emotional sermons, that sorta stuff. A lot of emphasis was placed on like, "fellowship" and basically hanging out with other people in church. It was actually at that church, that I realized the reality of my diagnosis. Before I just ignored it and thought it was just another silly psychiatric diagnosis. But surprisingly, the pastor's son at that church was diagnosed NVLD like me, and there were a lot of parallels between me and him. He didn't go to church, as it was just too many people, and also, he saw lots of problems and stuff, and officially considered himself agnostic. But, basically, I started having the same problems he did that church. It just didn't work. All the "fellowship" got to be too much, and then I just couldn't get the hang of the touchyfeelyness of it all. It'd be like "CAN YOU FEEL THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT" and I'd be like "uh...." I think a lot is just pure emotionalism, confused for spirituality. People just interpret their feelings, whether toward the service, the music being played, and just being with people in a group. That said, I do believe God does sometimes work through these groups, and at other times, not. He certainly did for me anyway, but I'm no longer there.

Now, I'm in the Orthodox Christian Church. The Orthodox Church just lined up most with what I believe theologically, but also, it's just a more....soberminded environment? That type of emotionalism stuff isn't prevalent in the Orthodox Churches. That, and the people there tend to be more nerdy types, and I think at my church, at least one guy I'm like 99% sure has Aspergers (he's 50+ now, though.) My old church, too, the youth pastor would literally say introversion is bad and stuff like that, as if you're introverted, you can't preach the Gospel and love your fellow man. The Orthodox Church however, many of it's saints are ascetics and hermits and monks, who God worked through amazingly. So in that regard, it's a better place for someone like me (though I'm not super introverted, I just have problems relating with people in general and do need maybe a bit more alone time than average.)

But that's my experience, anyway. So I think Aspies can be quite religious, but yeah, "charismatic" revival meeting kinda places, I do agree with you there, they don't tend to be good places for Aspies, at least longterm anyway, as well, we're born this way and all. God obviously must have meant us to have a different role than other people. Again, just my experience and opinions.

How real is the unity of the "United" States? We had a war that killed possibly 750,000 people to re-stitch the Republic together and various regions have been at odds with each other since then. The 99 percent hate the 1 percent and Governor Christie of N.J. killed a much needed tunnel to cross the Hudson River between N.J. and N.Y.

Norther Liberals make crude jokes about Southern Crackers, Blacks and Whites are not exactly having a Love Festival and Texans think Eastern folk are pansies.

Some Unity.

ruveyn

I have been reading that the universe started with a singularity and an event horizon. Light was formed and so was the rest of the articles and waves of the universe. I pondered that the God that created the universe is an exacting God and also that He practices the laws of conversation. What began as light was used to make matter. What began as matter was used to create life, including Mankind. To go even further, the female of our species was reportedly created from the male (if we are to believe the testament in the Torah.) I believe that we live in a hologram structured by the Humanity in the far future as, well, entertainment. Meanwhile we have the resurrection of Christ, which recent evidence strongly suggests created a singularity and an event horizon recorded in the Shroud of Turin. (http://www.khouse.org/articles/2009/847/print/ ) "Oh, my user's User..." LOL!