My thoughts on Christianity and Autism

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Before I begin my beliefs, I'd like to state the status of my religious beliefs: I am a Christian by belief who is struggling with aspects of his faith. I am not an atheist, nor am I an agnostic.

That being said, I will commence with my analysis of Christianity and Autism:

I will try to sum up the main ideas of Christianity in a paraphrased fashion:

Genesis (Old Testament):

1. God created the Heavens, Earth, Universe, all animals, and the first two humans- Adam & Eve.

2. God told Adam and Eve they could eat from any tree, except the Tree of the Knowledge of God and Evil

3. Satan, in the form of a snake, tempts Eve to eat the fruit, she does, and so does Adam

4. God punishes Adam & Eve by banishing them from the Garden of Eden. Snakes will hate men and men with hate snakes,
women will have painful childbirth and will desire to serve their husbands, and all men will be mortal and have to work until
they die.

Old Testament

The Old Testament is basically the history of Israel, which is God's chosen people. The main theme of the Old Testament is this- Israel
turns away from God, starts worshiping other false gods and doing things God doesn't like, God punishes Israel, Israel gets back on the "right track", they start falling away from God again, rinse, cycle, and repeat.

Also, prophets, whom God speaks to, tell of the Messiah ("anointed one" in Hebrew, "Christ" in Greek), who will save His people and liberate them.

The New Testament

The New Testament is about Jesus, or God incarnate in human form, coming to Earth, teaching men how to live according to God's standard. He is the Messiah, for He has come to free men of their sins, and free them from the wrath of God that is upon humanity because of Adam & Eve's original screw-up.

He does this by sacrificing Himself on the Cross to pay for all of mankind's sins, to finally allow man to have good standing with God, since the price of sin has been paid by Jesus. He died, and rose again three days, and descended into Heaven.

The rest of the New Testament is the foundation of the first church, the presence of the Holy Spirit left by Jesus, and Paul's missionary work to the rest of the world to convert people to Christianity. And of course, there is Revelations at the end, but those events have yet to happen.

What does Christianity have to do with autism?

I believe Autism, diseases, physical limitations, and all other impairments go back to Original Sin, which is the punishment by God for Adam and Eve's screw up in the Garden of Eden. I've talked to devout Christians before, and their analysis is this- God doesn't create human beings, their parents do, HOWEVER He does allow things to happen- like diseases, disorders, physical limitations, etc, as a punishment for Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden.

The Irony of it all!

The irony of it all is this- some of us are paying for Adam and Eve's rebellion in the Garden of Eden more than others are! When you look at Genesis, the punishments are this- 1.) The snake will crawl on its belly for the rest of its life, and God will place hatred between the snake and the man, so that the snake will strike the man, and the man will try to kill it. 2.) Women will give painful childbirth and they will desire their husbands. 3.) All men will be mortal, and will work hard to live and support themselves, and will die and one day go to ash, as they originally came from ash.

Let's check and see what applies to ALL human beings:

1. We are ALL mortal, we WILL die someday (that's a fact!)
2. Women DO give painful childbirth, and most of them desire to please their
husbands (and their husbands should please them as well)
3. Most humans HATE snakes, and want to run away or kill one
when we see them.
4. Unless we come from wealthy families, we ALL have to work hard to
live and support ourselves

Autism, Bi-polar disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Schizophrenia, paraplegia, quadriplegia, Manic depression, psychopathy, Neurofibromatosis, leprosy, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Cleft Palates, Down's Syndrome, Mental Retardation, Dyslexia, Tourette's Syndrome, Type 1 Diabetes, Obesity caused by hormonal imbalances, blindness, deafness, mutism, Elephantiasis, cancer.

Only SOME of us deal with these things! Everyone else, besides the conditions I mentioned above (and perhaps others too), were created NORMALLY, without defect in their physical/mental design.

It begs the question- Why would God allow these people, who never said or did anything bad to Him in their creation, to be weaker than everyone else? Why does Joe get to be allowed to be created normally by God, and Tim is allowed to have a form of Schizophrenia? Why does Jane get to be allowed to be created normally, and Sarah is allowed to have Down's Syndrome?

It is almost random how some people get "lucky" and others don't. It makes me question God's fairness.

I don't know, what do you all think?

I find viewing autism as a punishment as insulting.

I too am a Christian struggling with certain aspects of faith. My struggles come from the idea that men and women are equal in dignity before God's eyes but different in our gifts--I don't seem to have the nurturing, empathetic talents that women are supposed to all have. I have also heard it said that our souls give us the social component somehow (can't remember exactly what they said--it was on a show I was captioning) and that we have a need to come together as a body and that being alone isn't healthy. That could very well be true for NT Catholics but it isn't so for me, I don't think. I should talk to a priest about this and see if I can't get a better understanding of Christian "communion" and autism. They seem contradictory on the surface but if the Church is universal, I have to fit somewhere. Either that or I was somehow born without a soul.

I dislike spiders and other crawlies much more than snakes. I don't hate any creatures, though. They're just doing what they do, trying to live their lives, just like me.

The idea of original sin comes from St Augustine. He thought that all the suffering in the world comes because Original Sin perverted God's very good creation. It isn't a punishment imposed by God. Likewise poverty, or abuse, or disease. Augustine thought all humans were corrupted by Original Sin because of "seminal presence in the loins of Adam" i.e. all the sperm that ever existed were in Adam's testicles when he bit the fruit, which is impossible. This is why humans do bad things. Natural evil (which covers earthquakes, famines, and diseases) comes because "the ground is cursed" as a result of Original Sin (Genesis 2:17).

I think Augustine was wrong, and Original Sin doesn't exist. Instead, God either isn't as loving as He is traditionally held to be, or He isn't as knowledgeable and powerful as He is held to be, so he created an imperfect world and then didn't care or couldn't do anything to completely sort it out.

When do you think Adam and Eve lived?

I think the story of Adam and Eve is a parable.

Here is the Red Pill...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAag8mgdexk[/youtube][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJqw-idOwUc[/youtube][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4T3hlneD-g[/youtube][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_531438&feature=iv&src_vid=G4T3hlneD-g&v=78Fk8BwGR0I[/youtube][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Fk8BwGR0I[/youtube][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmQZ4f9f_Yw[/youtube]

As I am fond of saying....

I don't mind life being unfair...I just wish it was unfair more in my favor.