RE: Are people with ASD's more likely to be atheists
November 14, 2011 at 12:39 pm
(November 14, 2011 at 12:13 am)Justtristo Wrote: I might have a hunch some of the really obsessive religious types have at least some autistic traits. But then again you can say about people who are obsessive about anything really.
Although I do think (feel free to correct me) that people on the autistic spectrum are more likely to be left brained as opposed to right brained. Hence less likely to engage in lateral "out of the box" thinking. Such out of the box thinking makes people more likely to interpret certain things in religious writings and doctrine symbolically rather than literally.
Given that line of reasoning, I guess the lower level of lateral thinking for people on the autistic spectrum would make them more likely to be hold to views which are considered quite extreme (such as "strong" atheism or say Fundamentalist Christianity).
Perhaps a better explanation relies not so much in autism but in personality theory. Specificially MBTI. After all autism is still little understood.
The problems with logic: Logic can have a "garbage in garbage out"(input output error). Start first with a strong need to understand things. Then put in garbage information (things that simply aren't true) and garbage theories, and garbage is the result. If it's the only thing that attempts to explain the thing so you keep it because you must have some sort of construct to explain these things. some people keep their garbage some keep it only until they have found something that works better. The motives to either keep permanently or temporarily are personality based.
Now add in irrationality. Some sort of internal or external reason for sticking with a theory that has many holes in it. These reasons can be very powerful. It can cause a person to believe and defend their beliefs despite the holes. It causes a person to cherry pick (have selective attention) to what they want to believe and ignore anything else. I will list a few but it is not necessary to have all of them to be a believer. It is also possible that these "reasons" correlate positively with personality; specifically MBTI personality.
1)
The presence of spiritual phenomena. This can be a strong and overwhelming thing. In the absence of anything else to explain it, it can be like a proof that god exists. To a point, the experience of "spiritual" phenomena can be the proof that this deity that has been handed to you by a religious organization exists. Naturally the thing that can properly explain the "what exists" is science. Unfortunately the last of the sciences to mature are Psychology and brain science. Psychology is difficult to prove and Brain science relies on equipment that has only been developed in the last few decades and even these instruments are too crude to give a complete picture. In the past Psychology has had pathetic scientific explanations for spiritual phenomena. Supposedly there are much better explanations available now a days. Brain science has come a long way. I am in the process of looking into these explanations. So far the prospects appear hopeful.
2)
A place where you can exercise what you are good at if you are good at caring and sharing your emotions. Christianity is a place where you can care and share your feelings with other people and (possibly) with god. Some people really get something out of doing this at frequent intervals. Sermons are often feeling based. To try to understand one of these feeling types, I once asked someone who was into reading those touchy feely novels, (some of which were romance novels others were just books that told stories of human relationships) why she did that (what she got out of it). She said that when she read she let out a lot of emotion. She said that "after I let out all this emotion I feel exhausted but satisfied. I feel good." So I assume that to some people the things you do when you are religious makes you feel good because you can exercise something you are good at which is letting out and sharing emotion. This was never a draw for me (actually it was more of a repulsion) but I have noticed it as quite a strong draw for others.
3)I think I have mentioned how Pentecostalism can be a drug and how it can give false hope for the hopeless. Even though the "miracle breakthroughs" promised by the preachers never come or never are fully realized, the hope in what you do not see is still there. To better understand this let's look at a phenomena. In his book "The Pursuit of Happiness" (a movie was made about it recently) Chris Garner mentioned that the closer he came to his goal the more doubt came into his mind. The more he thought "what is someone like me doing this?" (he was studying to become a broker). I can explain this by saying that things seem more achievable in the fantasy world. Fantasy is risk free. They can be created and dashed and new ones can take their place. The more close to reality a dream becomes the more in touch you become with your ability to do the thing you are trying to accomplish. This is where self esteem (what you believe about yourself) can either boost you up or kill you. It takes a strong will to plow through poor self esteem. It's easier to abdicate responsibility and believe that god will miraculously make things happen for you than to go through what you need to go through to reach your dreams. You don't have to work, you don't have to fight with your self esteem, and in some cases you don't have to mature.
4) A desire for order. This is an odd belief that many many people hold very strongly. In this case the quest to have and maintain order is the ultimate goal in any venture and it should be the end result of any venture. It is also always a maintenance issue; once it's established things must be put in place to ensure that order is maintained. Order is the thing (they believe) that produces peace because in an ordered society everyone (with only a small margin for individual differences) will believe and act the same way. Order also produces productivity because people aren't mucking about with too much contemplation. Religion and a desire for order go together nicely. Religion is a system that is set up once and then maintained thereafter. What makes it even better is the authority that an omniscient omnipresent god can give to the system. If the words one must obey come not from humans but from god who has the ability to smite your ass, then you are really screwed if you break the rules/beliefs. It also gives (a false) authority to any human who tries to uphold order. He or she can say that "god says this or that or god has put me in authority over you so you must obey"....blah blah blah. Order can naturally be opposed to contemplation, rational thought, and exploration because when one does these things it almost naturally leads to new ideas and discoveries that challenge the established system; it can shift mental paradigms. I believe that it is this last thing that is a major cause for hatred for the atheists. If you look at religion through the lens of a need for order atheists completely fuck the system at every level. It's more than just questioning the system (which is bad enough for some people), it's fucking it up. Religion and science almost never mix well.
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
