atheists and aspergers?

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why does it seem like there are more atheists in aspergers then other religions? this is just a curiousity that ive noted on wrong planet.

Because people with Asperger's engage in less teleological thinking than the average person?

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/obs ... eir-lives/

I would partially argue it is the influence of academics and other authority figures early in their lives, same with Neurotypicals.

i have never read that article before thank you for posting it it all makes more sense to me now.

It seems that the correlation between Asperger's Syndrome and Atheism stems from the fact that many people on the spectrum find the principles and dogma of religion to be illogical.

Thing that most people on the spectrum fail to realize is there is often a difference between the actual teachings of a religion and what some religious leader claims.

Books-dot-google for "Persinger God Spot" lists about 215 results in books. The temporal lobes of the brain are usually involved in stronger religious experiences, and two often co-morbid impairments of the temporal lobes are temporal lobe epilepsy and autism. The "God Spot" has many characteristics that are easily, and fairly usefully, modeled as a cusp catastrophe, with the extremes of the God Spot being either excessively stimulated or nearly non-functional.

Persinger has established that religious experiences can often be induced with low-level EMF stimulation equipment (often called the "god helmet"), with higher-levels of catastrophe models (like the Hollywood "famous" butterfly catastrophe) better explaining the periods between religious ecstasy and intense depression sometimes seen with epilepsy, and the commonality of brain-function/brain-area linking co-morbid epilepsy and autism. The strong hint that intense religious experiences and beliefs result from physical brain impairments is very controversial, again with "normal" as just the most frequent in the general population, and the less frequent in two different vague directions over the general population, being viewed as impairments by alternating groups (religious fanatics versus atheist fanatics, with much more DSM-IV criteria of severe impairments being met by the religious group).

Tadzio

Before I came here i assume most of us where politically conservative it seams to be the opposite this could be a by product of the mean age of users of the site but even so.

I think it depends more on the authority figures in one's life, particularly teachers.

I didn't know there was a correlation but maybe it is more about aspies finding it difficult to fit in, so they don't fit in with the religion they are brought up with? I don't know because my parents didn't bring me up to have religious belief.

But I get confused with what is meant by atheist. Does it mean no belief in any kind of god, or no belief in the relgiously defined gods? Or does it mean materialist? Does an atheist have to be materialist?

A-theism means belief in no Gods. As opposed to theism (belief in God or gods), and agnosticism ( not knowing one way or the other if there is a god or not).

In Western thought you would pretty much have to be a materialist if you're an atheist. But there are polytheistic, monotheistic, and atheiestic, sects of Hinduism ( one of the latter of which branched off and became Buddhism). The universe can be governed by Karma (moral cause and effect) without an anthropormorphic diety in charge. So atheism in the East isnt quite the same thing atheism in the West.

I wandered from Catholicism but I'm very fascinated by Buddhism.

Last edited by VIDEODROME on 13 Dec 2011, 11:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

At least in current form, that seems like a very poor explanation for why, all else considered equal, Aspies are less likely to be supernaturalists than the general population. You can't explain difference with a generic explanation unless you specify how or why said influences affect aspies differently or to a greater/lesser degree than the general population.

What most of us do realise is that the actual teachings of a religion are often more illogical than the claims of some religious leader because the leader might present more modern sentiments and rationalise the backward aspects of the religion he preaches.

Here's the Christian view on the subject:
http://conservapedia.com/Atheism#The_cl ... lenged_men

In 2007, Vox Day wrote:
“ It's not just a figment of my imagination, it seems atheists truly are socially autistic by their own report. Asperger's Syndrome is a disorder described as "autistic psychopathy" by its discoverer, Dr. Hans Asperger. Those with the disorder tend to be intelligent, socially awkward and difficult to converse with. They are also likely to be male.

Based on Wired magazine's observation that atheists tend to be quarrelsome, socially challenged men, to say nothing of the unpleasant personalities of leading public atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Michel Onfray, one could reasonably hypothesize that there is likely to be a strong correlation between Asperger's and atheism. It's by no means a scientific test, but it is interesting to note the coincidence that 59 of the virulent atheists over at Dr. PZ Myers place report an average score on the Asperger's Quotient test of 27.8. And this does not include the two individuals who actually have Asperger's but did not report any test results.

The test notes that "Scores over 32 are generally taken to indicate Asperger's Syndrome or high-functioning autism". The average male score is 18, the average female score is 15. By way of comparison, I scored 14...

Obviously, more comprehensive and scientific tests would be advised before any definite conclusion can be reached...[175]
”

In 2010, the Christian apologetics website True Free Thinker wrote:
“ Scienceblogger Chad Orzel described the commentators on PZ Myers ' Scienceblogs.com site Pharyngula, and other Scienceblogs.com commentators, as "screechy monkeys."[176] ”

Of course, there is no necessity to assert that atheists are more likely to have Asperger's Syndrome. The historical militancy of the atheist/evolutionist community and the ideas their ideologies have often engendered provides more than enough explanatory power to explain the origin of the quarrelsomeness and other social deficiencies of many in the atheists/evolutionist population (see: militant atheism and social effects of the theory of evolution ). In fact, it is arguably the best explanation for the quarrelsomeness and other social deficiencies of many in the atheist/evolutionist community. In addition, ultimately the decision to reject or be reconciled with God is a matter relating to the grace of God and free will and nobody is forced into atheism due to a physical condition.

In February of 2010, the news organization The Telegraph reported that the atheist and evolutionist Richard Dawkins was embroiled "in a bitter online battle over plans to rid his popular internet forum for atheists of foul language, insults and 'frivolous gossip'."[177] In addition, Richard Dawkins has a reputation for being abrasive. For example, in September of 2010, Richard Dawkins became nasty towards a woman in an audience he spoke before (see: Women's views of Richard Dawkins)

So in western religions you have to be materialist if you are an atheist. What if you believed in a non physical realm that is not governed by any kind of god, it is just there, like the physical world is just there?