Any Aspies who would consider themselves one these options:

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emax10000
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04 Mar 2015, 10:53 pm

I am aware that there are many agnostics and atheists here and a fair number of posters who could be called "new atheists" and many who were once religious but are now atheists. I was wondering though if there are any autistics and/or aspies who fit in any one of the categories below:

1. Religious Christians or Jews who belong to a specific denomination and follow God regularly

2. Believers in God who feel that belief in God has innately positive effects on one's life but is also very much against organized religion and religious dogma and feels that said dogma often diminishes the value of God

3. Christians or Jews who have a strong belief in God but also feel that it should be kept personal and not be a part of political or social life at all and should not be aggressively shared with anyone


4. Deists

I was wondering if there are aspies and autistics who would fit into any one of the above 4 categories. I know I talked about this somewhat in another subforum however I am interested in connecting with autistics and aspies who are spiritual and religious but also like keeping their religion and spirituality between them and God.

Now of course I am totally cool with discussing issues we are passionate about with Aspies and autistics of every religion and of no religion and have nothing against interacting with atheists and agnostics in the slightest. However I was hoping that this forum as of now still had aspies and autistics who consider themselves strong believers in God and that there was still significant religious diversity here on WP.



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04 Mar 2015, 11:48 pm

We haven't chased the religious ones away... not yet, anyway. :P

We have all manner of theologies here, and as you might expect from ASD people, some vigorous intellectual discussions on religious topics.


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emax10000
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04 Mar 2015, 11:50 pm

Narrator wrote:
We haven't chased the religious ones away... not yet, anyway. :P

We have all manner of theologies here, and as you might expect from ASD people, some vigorous intellectual discussions on religious topics.

Wonderful. I sincerely hope at least some of them would be kind and gracious enough to make their presence known here. Those with strong religious convictions may be tougher to chase away then you think if that is what the goal is.



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05 Mar 2015, 12:24 am

emax10000 wrote:
I am aware that there are many agnostics and atheists here and a fair number of posters who could be called "new atheists" and many who were once religious but are now atheists. I was wondering though if there are any autistics and/or aspies who fit in any one of the categories below:

1. Religious Christians or Jews who belong to a specific denomination and follow God regularly

2. Believers in God who feel that belief in God has innately positive effects on one's life but is also very much against organized religion and religious dogma and feels that said dogma often diminishes the value of God

3. Christians or Jews who have a strong belief in God but also feel that it should be kept personal and not be a part of political or social life at all and should not be aggressively shared with anyone


4. Deists

I was wondering if there are aspies and autistics who would fit into any one of the above 4 categories. I know I talked about this somewhat in another subforum however I am interested in connecting with autistics and aspies who are spiritual and religious but also like keeping their religion and spirituality between them and God.

Now of course I am totally cool with discussing issues we are passionate about with Aspies and autistics of every religion and of no religion and have nothing against interacting with atheists and agnostics in the slightest. However I was hoping that this forum as of now still had aspies and autistics who consider themselves strong believers in God and that there was still significant religious diversity here on WP.


Are you aware that you could have made this post into a "poll"?
Click on the "add a poll" when you post, and then we can actually check off which of those options we are.



emax10000
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05 Mar 2015, 12:30 am

naturalplastic wrote:
emax10000 wrote:
I am aware that there are many agnostics and atheists here and a fair number of posters who could be called "new atheists" and many who were once religious but are now atheists. I was wondering though if there are any autistics and/or aspies who fit in any one of the categories below:

1. Religious Christians or Jews who belong to a specific denomination and follow God regularly

2. Believers in God who feel that belief in God has innately positive effects on one's life but is also very much against organized religion and religious dogma and feels that said dogma often diminishes the value of God

3. Christians or Jews who have a strong belief in God but also feel that it should be kept personal and not be a part of political or social life at all and should not be aggressively shared with anyone


4. Deists

I was wondering if there are aspies and autistics who would fit into any one of the above 4 categories. I know I talked about this somewhat in another subforum however I am interested in connecting with autistics and aspies who are spiritual and religious but also like keeping their religion and spirituality between them and God.

Now of course I am totally cool with discussing issues we are passionate about with Aspies and autistics of every religion and of no religion and have nothing against interacting with atheists and agnostics in the slightest. However I was hoping that this forum as of now still had aspies and autistics who consider themselves strong believers in God and that there was still significant religious diversity here on WP.


Are you aware that you could have made this post into a "poll"?
Click on the "add a poll" when you post, and then we can actually check off which of those options we are.

My mistake, most forums require you to be a kind of senior member to add polls so I instinctively figured I would not be allowed to. In any case, do you fit any of the above 4 options?

Also, for moderators here, would it also be possible to have a poll added or a poll on this in a separate thread? I think a poll would be a good idea now that I see I can have one, what do you think would be best?



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05 Mar 2015, 1:38 am

emax10000 wrote:
Narrator wrote:
We haven't chased the religious ones away... not yet, anyway. :P

We have all manner of theologies here, and as you might expect from ASD people, some vigorous intellectual discussions on religious topics.

Wonderful. I sincerely hope at least some of them would be kind and gracious enough to make their presence known here. Those with strong religious convictions may be tougher to chase away then you think if that is what the goal is.

No.. just my cheeky joke. Hence the :P icon.


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And a blank look rarely means a blank mind.


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05 Mar 2015, 1:42 am

Depends on the day as my mind shifts around, usually a strong agnostic. Sometimes I shift into a hybrid mindset of 2 and 4.



emax10000
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05 Mar 2015, 3:38 am

Narrator wrote:
No.. just my cheeky joke. Hence the :P icon.

I thought it might be one of those jokes that is not really a joke but rather implying something altogether. It seems so many people on the internet do that. However, I forgot that for WP members that isn't really their style.



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05 Mar 2015, 6:32 am

emax10000 wrote:
I was wondering if there are aspies and autistics who would fit into any one of the above 4 categories. I know I talked about this somewhat in another subforum however I am interested in connecting with autistics and aspies who are spiritual and religious but also like keeping their religion and spirituality between them and God.


Deist me I suppose but it's not something I have much of a need to discuss tbh.
Read Confusius for years and that in turn took me into (spiritual) Taoism and then spent some more years reading Lao Tzu and Lingshu.
Not sure why you would want to connect with people that like keeping their religion and spirituality a personal thing to start with though :?
Sort of a contradiction in terms to me :? But that could be me... I can be a rather contradictory person at the best of times :mrgreen:



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05 Mar 2015, 6:48 am

emax10000 wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
emax10000 wrote:
I am aware that there are many agnostics and atheists here and a fair number of posters who could be called "new atheists" and many who were once religious but are now atheists. I was wondering though if there are any autistics and/or aspies who fit in any one of the categories below:

1. Religious Christians or Jews who belong to a specific denomination and follow God regularly

2. Believers in God who feel that belief in God has innately positive effects on one's life but is also very much against organized religion and religious dogma and feels that said dogma often diminishes the value of God

3. Christians or Jews who have a strong belief in God but also feel that it should be kept personal and not be a part of political or social life at all and should not be aggressively shared with anyone


4. Deists

I was wondering if there are aspies and autistics who would fit into any one of the above 4 categories. I know I talked about this somewhat in another subforum however I am interested in connecting with autistics and aspies who are spiritual and religious but also like keeping their religion and spirituality between them and God.

Now of course I am totally cool with discussing issues we are passionate about with Aspies and autistics of every religion and of no religion and have nothing against interacting with atheists and agnostics in the slightest. However I was hoping that this forum as of now still had aspies and autistics who consider themselves strong believers in God and that there was still significant religious diversity here on WP.


Are you aware that you could have made this post into a "poll"?
Click on the "add a poll" when you post, and then we can actually check off which of those options we are.

My mistake, most forums require you to be a kind of senior member to add polls so I instinctively figured I would not be allowed to. In any case, do you fit any of the above 4 options?


"Deist" would be the closest.



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05 Mar 2015, 7:45 am

emax10000 wrote:
Narrator wrote:
No.. just my cheeky joke. Hence the :P icon.

I thought it might be one of those jokes that is not really a joke but rather implying something altogether. It seems so many people on the internet do that. However, I forgot that for WP members that isn't really their style.


Oh, it's no joke. The de facto stance of all atheists is that we demand multifaceted segregation along denominational lines, all rights to public prayer revoked, the right to marry inanimate objects and for all theists to be on a 'reason offenders register'.

Oh! And and pizza. Without pineapple, because pineapple is divisive.



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05 Mar 2015, 8:46 am

emax10000 wrote:
2. Believers in God who feel that belief in God has innately positive effects on one's life but is also very much against organized religion and religious dogma and feels that said dogma often diminishes the value of God

3. Christians or Jews who have a strong belief in God but also feel that it should be kept personal and not be a part of political or social life at all and should not be aggressively shared with anyone


I would be a mix between those two options if it exists:
"Christian, have a strong belief in God, am very much against organized religion and religious dogma and feels that said dogma oftem diminishes the value of God, should not be aggressively shared with anyone."



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05 Mar 2015, 9:19 am

Deist, mostly.

I try (but often fail) to follow the teachings of a Jewish rabbi named Jesus (or Immanuel, if you prefer), as written in the Jefferson Gospel.

Previous Gospels are nice, but rely too heavily on miracles lacking evidence.



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06 Mar 2015, 12:03 am

I think technically deism involves belief in a deity-as-creator. I don't meet that strict definition, but I'm something comparable to a deist.

I enjoy thinking about a certain concept, which is difficult to put into words. To the extent that the word "believe" can be taken to mean "assume for the sake of argument," then in an argument with myself I "believe" in this certain concept, which is probably best described as a mathematical object. This object isn't a deity but stands in place of a deity and might be said to contain a deity. If a creation-event ever took place, then that object consists of (at least) the union of the creator and the creation; but the object is defined without necessarily implying that any creation event actually has-or-will-or-might occur.

I guess you could say that deism is one of the possibilities that my beliefs encompass without necessarily endorsing.


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06 Mar 2015, 1:01 am

Clarke's 3rd law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

That kind of deity?


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A smile is not always a smile.
A frown is not always a frown.
And a blank look rarely means a blank mind.


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06 Mar 2015, 2:58 am

I was at the point of 2) and 4), was alternating between it's social value and sort of the Mike Novak take of an abstract intelligence deliberately hiding behind the framework of things in order to gain our pursuit and inquiry.

In the past few years I took a very big shift; prior to that I was strongly heading toward full determinist materialism, one or two things set me off down a completely different path after that - this new path being Hermetic mysticism/magic.

I still see the bible as an incredibly valuable book but I also see it as the latest and most well-documented version of what's really a primordial astrological religion that many of the major religious currents - including those of polytheism - seem to reference either directly or indirectly. Also for the flavor that Job gives it and despite a lot of of it's history really stressing good vs. evil, heaven vs. hell, tracing back to what the wisdom teaching in it really are they fall back largely on Ptolemaic philosophy and Greco-Egyptian neoplatonism. In that sense biblical stories, concepts and morals, high-pagan stories, concepts, and morals, to me are all really driving at the same thing of value but they don't relate to a Manichean/Christian Gnostic type duality of 'evil matter' - hence the bible has a crisscrossing current of Neoplatonism and Manicheaism that are quite tough to reconcile.

In the last few years I joined a couple mystic fraternities - AMORC and BOTA. Truth be told in a lot of ways making that move saved my life.

My take on mysticism so far and how it works - you're essentially trying to stare down the optic nerve of our own consciousness (not literally in front of a mirror but rather through meditation, contemplation, imaginative exercise, etc.) and if you look far enough the idea is you can look at the very roots of what you'd consider you. Similarly there are times and places in life where certain currents will rise up within you and where you'll feel like you touched base with some transcendental, even if fleeting, that felt like it was in so many ways more you than you. When I think of those religious icons in history who would suggest with respect to their acts that their works were never of themselves but of the will of the One who sent them and of themselves could do nothing, or any talk of being 'born again of the spirit' - I think it's really meant to detail that, touching on the prime point within the very center of ourselves.

Whether or not such explorations actually have anything backing them aside from just very good use of positive psychology - I can't say. At a minimum it seems like the key note to truly authentic living, untangling one's own fundamental will from all of the noise that was clapped down upon them growing up (keeping the practical - pitching the rest), and it seems like the wise of all ages have had a sense of that and encoded it in allegory. The tail of the death and regeneration of Dionysus is a classic example of this kind of thing. The other thing I can't help but notice is that the energies worked with have notable effects - particularly what a lot of people like to call kundalini or the 'secret fire'.

Whether it's simply a wild romance with your own gray matter or actually climbing Jacob's ladder - the profundity of the results and life enrichment as well as the payoff for facing the challenges seems phenomenal, comparable to say mastering a martial art, getting an MD, or something along those lines but much more profound on the level in which you're getting a grip on yourself.


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