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ImpulsIve
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12 Mar 2011, 5:03 pm

I'm of the opinion that the Apostle Paul had Asperger's.

Consider this - he was legalistic and rule-following prior to his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Subsequent to that, he was rigid in his opinions (Note his chastisement of Peter for daring to eat with his (Peter's) friends instead of sitting with the Gentile believers, as Paul wanted).

Paul was long winded, but he did not seem to carry on conversations, he preached a lot. He seemed to spend a lot of time alone or with a few companions. He was intelligent, good at languages, and well read. Finally, he communicated a lot through letters. (Just like preaching, communication in writing is one-way and doesn't require same time interaction with others).

I think that God has a special place for Aspies in his ministry. Too bad that so many of us have a visceral negative reaction to Christianity. :roll:



MCalavera
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12 Mar 2011, 5:29 pm

ImpulsIve wrote:
I'm of the opinion that the Apostle Paul had Asperger's.

Consider this - he was legalistic and rule-following prior to his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Subsequent to that, he was rigid in his opinions (Note his chastisement of Peter for daring to eat with his (Peter's) friends instead of sitting with the Gentile believers, as Paul wanted).

Paul was long winded, but he did not seem to carry on conversations, he preached a lot. He seemed to spend a lot of time alone or with a few companions. He was intelligent, good at languages, and well read. Finally, he communicated a lot through letters. (Just like preaching, communication in writing is one-way and doesn't require same time interaction with others).

I think that God has a special place for Aspies in his ministry. Too bad that so many of us have a visceral negative reaction to Christianity. :roll:


Um, no. The Scriptures show that he did not have Asperger's. The guy was just too social and eloquent in public. Read the Book of Acts again.

If he did have something spectacular, it would be something to the likes of narcissistic personality disorder (but it's hard to diagnose him with the exact label).



pgd
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12 Mar 2011, 5:32 pm

Paul likely had epilepsy. Source: Nerves In Collision book by Walter C. Alvarez, M.D. Also, Paul never knew Jesus Christ personally yet so much of the New Testament is written by Paul meaning that what is often called Christianity is really Paulianity. Paul ran his mouth off a lot about a person, Jesus Christ, a person Paul never ever met in person so a lot of people wonder as to how accurate Paul's preaching is. Paul is like a person in 2011 who claimed he knew Abraham Lincoln personally yet never met Abraham Lincoln. Is it possible that Paul had a few Asperger-like traits? In my view, yes, but I think it is a lot clearer that Paul had epilepsy. Was Paul an extremist Christian politician who was willing to die for his extremist political cause - Christianity? Yes. Paul continually wrote that God saved him from everything but in the end, the Roman emperor had Paul beheaded (like John the Baptist was beheaded in Israel years before).

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ruveyn
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12 Mar 2011, 7:45 pm

MCalavera wrote:

Um, no. The Scriptures show that he did not have Asperger's. The guy was just too social and eloquent in public. Read the Book of Acts again.

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Paul/Saul was probably epileptic.

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Fuzzy
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12 Mar 2011, 11:06 pm

Never heard him called Saint Paul.


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ruveyn
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13 Mar 2011, 5:30 am

Fuzzy wrote:
Never heard him called Saint Paul.


He is so called by the RCC.

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13 Mar 2011, 10:07 am

A bit of Aspie insight and wisdom, maybe ...

"And I, Sha’ul ... I who am indeed lowly when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent! ...
"... they say, 'His letters are truly weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech amounts to naught.' ...
"But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise."
(2 Corinthians 10, ISR)


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Fuzzy
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13 Mar 2011, 11:11 am

ruveyn wrote:
Fuzzy wrote:
Never heard him called Saint Paul.


He is so called by the RCC.

ruveyn


Never heard him called Saint Paul.


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ruveyn
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13 Mar 2011, 11:38 am

Fuzzy wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
Fuzzy wrote:
Never heard him called Saint Paul.


He is so called by the RCC.

ruveyn


Never heard him called Saint Paul.


Where are all of these church buildings name St. Paul coming from? As in downtown London.

ruveyn



Fuzzy
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13 Mar 2011, 12:11 pm

ruveyn wrote:
Fuzzy wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
Fuzzy wrote:
Never heard him called Saint Paul.


He is so called by the RCC.

ruveyn


Never heard him called Saint Paul.


Where are all of these church buildings name St. Paul coming from? As in downtown London.

ruveyn


I am well aware that he was canonised. Place names aside, in church he was always just "the apostle Paul" with the idea that anyone that was an apostle was of course a saint as well. To call them otherwise would be like saying "Mister Obama" instead of "President Obama".

Right Rabbi?


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ruveyn
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13 Mar 2011, 12:19 pm

Fuzzy wrote:

I am well aware that he was canonised. Place names aside, in church he was always just "the apostle Paul" with the idea that anyone that was an apostle was of course a saint as well. To call them otherwise would be like saying "Mister Obama" instead of "President Obama".

Right Rabbi?


A great archeologist, Thostle
Found an amazing fossil
From the way it did bend
And the knot in the end
'twas the penis of Paul the Apostle.

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MCalavera
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13 Mar 2011, 6:25 pm

ruveyn wrote:
MCalavera wrote:

Um, no. The Scriptures show that he did not have Asperger's. The guy was just too social and eloquent in public. Read the Book of Acts again.

.


Paul/Saul was probably epileptic.

ruveyn


But how would we know if he was?

We can only judge what his personality was like through his writings.

And what I see is narcissism in the sense that he is always right and others who disagree with him are wrong and anyone who ditches him is a traitor and so on.



ruveyn
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13 Mar 2011, 7:24 pm

MCalavera wrote:

But how would we know if he was?

.


His "vision" on the road to Damascus. Complete with aura and falling down. That is classical epilepsy or "falling sickness".

ruveyn