I am someone close to the autism spectrum. I'm heavily introverted and have difficulty picking up social clues from the environment. Also I have difficulty looking people in the eyes. I have found ways around the many social problems associated with the disorder. I no longer rate on the autism scale but when I was younger I was a mess.
I became a fundie at age 12. Christianity provided for me a construct that explained the psychological phenomena (what could be called spiritual phenomena if you are a believer in such things) I had been experiencing all my life. Fundamentalism provided for me a structure of morality that I needed. Before you say WTF let me explain. When you have difficulty picking up social clues from the environment and you are heavily introverted you need to have obvious social things explained to you over and over until you somehow get it. Some normal people don't need any of this stuff explained to them. They are so sensitive to the social clues around them they know what to say and do and when to say them.I lacked this. To add to things I came from a screwed up family and my mom drank too much so I didn't even get the basics of how to behave in a social situation and some of the basics of right and wrong. Fundamentalism beats this stuff into your head. In this case it helped. The order and predictability was also a useful thing.
There are much much better ways to teach autistics morality and social interaction. Steven Covey has written some books which teaches social interaction and other things in a very logical way. It shows cause and effect and how what you do effects you personally (great for introverts). I don't know if I would have been able to understand it as a young teenager but if I had that book when I was around 18 I doubt fundamentalism would have had the appeal it had. Furthermore if books that explained scientifically the psychological mechanism behind "spiritual" experiences I think that would have helped also. I remembered reading a few but they were really weird. Brain science was just coming out of it's infancy then so the theories were a little far fetched. Of course understanding autism helps also, in this case the understanding might help reduce the need for a "god" to fix you.
These days people understand autism better and are better able to meet the needs of autistics. This fact should, theoretically effect results of any atuism religion study.
If they were to do a autism and religion study again they need to do it on a much larger scale and include people of all age groups. In particular interest would be the differences between groups (autistics and normal functioning people) as it relates to who keeps their religion between the ages of 15-25 (a usual fall off age) and again at middle age (ages 35-50).
Between the ages of 15-25 is a time when a person chooses to believe or not to believe for him or herself the beliefs of their parents. Another age of transition is middle age. During this time a person's career has been underway for quite some time, children are older thus freeing up a lot of time to look back at the accumulated life experiences they have had. Some people call this mid life crisis. During the re evaluation period religion and belief is evaluated also. If deconversion does exist at a higher rate at this time then It might be a fair assumption that midlife revaluation is the stimulus that caused the change. It would be interesting if (if drop off does occur in higher numbers at this age) there is a difference between autistics and non autistics.
I became a fundie at age 12. Christianity provided for me a construct that explained the psychological phenomena (what could be called spiritual phenomena if you are a believer in such things) I had been experiencing all my life. Fundamentalism provided for me a structure of morality that I needed. Before you say WTF let me explain. When you have difficulty picking up social clues from the environment and you are heavily introverted you need to have obvious social things explained to you over and over until you somehow get it. Some normal people don't need any of this stuff explained to them. They are so sensitive to the social clues around them they know what to say and do and when to say them.I lacked this. To add to things I came from a screwed up family and my mom drank too much so I didn't even get the basics of how to behave in a social situation and some of the basics of right and wrong. Fundamentalism beats this stuff into your head. In this case it helped. The order and predictability was also a useful thing.
There are much much better ways to teach autistics morality and social interaction. Steven Covey has written some books which teaches social interaction and other things in a very logical way. It shows cause and effect and how what you do effects you personally (great for introverts). I don't know if I would have been able to understand it as a young teenager but if I had that book when I was around 18 I doubt fundamentalism would have had the appeal it had. Furthermore if books that explained scientifically the psychological mechanism behind "spiritual" experiences I think that would have helped also. I remembered reading a few but they were really weird. Brain science was just coming out of it's infancy then so the theories were a little far fetched. Of course understanding autism helps also, in this case the understanding might help reduce the need for a "god" to fix you.
These days people understand autism better and are better able to meet the needs of autistics. This fact should, theoretically effect results of any atuism religion study.
If they were to do a autism and religion study again they need to do it on a much larger scale and include people of all age groups. In particular interest would be the differences between groups (autistics and normal functioning people) as it relates to who keeps their religion between the ages of 15-25 (a usual fall off age) and again at middle age (ages 35-50).
Between the ages of 15-25 is a time when a person chooses to believe or not to believe for him or herself the beliefs of their parents. Another age of transition is middle age. During this time a person's career has been underway for quite some time, children are older thus freeing up a lot of time to look back at the accumulated life experiences they have had. Some people call this mid life crisis. During the re evaluation period religion and belief is evaluated also. If deconversion does exist at a higher rate at this time then It might be a fair assumption that midlife revaluation is the stimulus that caused the change. It would be interesting if (if drop off does occur in higher numbers at this age) there is a difference between autistics and non autistics.
I have studied the Bible and the theology behind Christianity for many years. I have been to many churches. I have walked the depth and the breadth of the religion and, as a result of this, I have a lot of bullshit to scrape off the bottom of my shoes. ~Ziploc Surprise
