With the need for everything to be literal and logical, religion is a complex issue for those with ASD.
As a child and adolescent, I was very literal with religion. I constantly worried about eternal punishment and that I or someone else I knew might do something to displease God. I was also bothered by the conflicts between what I learned in history class and what was in the Bible.
As a young adult, I discovered Universalism which is based on many of the original Christian beliefs and seems to make a lot more logical sense to me. I still retain a strong relationship with God, but I have lost that feeling of fear.
I tend to combine aspects of what I learned as scientific facts with religion, for instance seeing evolution like a complex AI program, and believing in heaven as an alternate dimension that will exist beyond the finite lifespan of the universe.
I have come to let go of much of my rigidity with religion and to be respectful of all beliefs (or lack of belief). I have come to accept it all under the Universalist teaching that all mortal beings will eventually be returned to God, regardless of their beliefs.
I am not posting this to engage in a debate about the correctness or incorrectness of my own religious beliefs. I know online debates on religion can get pretty heated. Comments are moderated as always and personal attacks will be deleted. However, I am interested in comments on how other individuals with AS have dealt with the issue of religion with regards to their unique thought processes.
Monday, May 04, 2009
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7 comments:
I had fears as a child pertaining to religion as well. I know it had everything to do with how I process information as an Aspie.
Glad I found your blog!
Hi fellow Aspie... I live in Edmonton too! So glad I cam across your blog.
I was raised atheist, and I'd say that now I am agnostic. I am too cynical and literal and in-the-moment to believe in much of anything right now.
vicki
I'm a Catholic Aspie with an interest in belief systems and rule systems, so I've given these matters much thought over the years. I realized back in my teens that human use tends to distort systems (languages, rules, religions) and I deal with the inconsistencies in my religion by assuming some parts have a higher priority than other parts...and that some parts are just noise. Sometimes, this means I have to be a bad Catholic in order to be a good person; but I know that the Catholic-ness is worthless without the goodness. I just do the best I can manage and hope an all-knowing God will know that it _was_ my best. ...and I tend to hope that a wise and loving God would use Hell like humans have henceforth used nuclear weapons: sparingly, as a last resort, and more as a threat to deter behavior than a promise of retribution. Sorry to be so longwinded. I tried to cram my entire philosophy of life into a paragraph, and dare not try your patience while trying to encapsulate the remainder.
Our daughter has NVLD and it's coming down to the fact that one of our only options for her to get a decent education in our area is by sending her to a Catholic school with programs for those with ASD's. We're a little worried, as we're Unitarians/Agnostics. Our daughter is very literal and we think she could easily be drawn into a more Christian-oriented religion, as she is very trusting and very open to suggestion. However, the eduction part will probably win out here, so we'll just have to make sure that we make sure she understands our family's beliefs, while keeping an open mind to others she might learn about.
Hi I'm an aspie and a Jehovah's Witness I liked your blog because I find it hard to find other people who think like me and believe in God and I always had a hard time explaining my beliefs to others in ways they could understand (a real nightmare for a JW (Jehovah's Witness)) I wondered if you ever felt alienated by a belief system many people don't understand coupled with the fact you have ASD because I sometimes feel like I need a specially drawn out group of people into a club based on several complex factors (like religion, autism, sense of humor) because I don't know about other people at all but I need to fit in people based on more than one or two dimensions of my life
Bricklayercake-
You're daughters safe from being catholofied. As an aspie , I survived 9 long years at an (extremely) catholic school, and it actually had the opposite affect on me. My only concern is that catholic schools tend to be very focused (more so than most public schools) on conformity. Anyone who is a different religion, especially, as in my case, if it is by their own choice, already sticks out; if they are not otherwise normal, it makes them stick out a lot more. Small classes look like a benefit, but actually increase the sense of being different.
Hi =)
Well, Christianity as taught by my primary chool did not fit well with me... I was Agnostic until I psychically reached out and started meeting some Gods.
Over my years of Paganry and Witchdom I have come to the belief that all Faith in Good Divinity, striving to bring that Divine Goodness into Earthly Manifestation through Righteous Living; striving ever towards our highest ideals, it is all of a Holy Unity; only a dangerous handful of psychopaths adore Evil in itself.
None of us will *KNOW* absolute truth as to the realities and purposes of God/The Gods until it's too late to do much about what we've done in this life, so if we're in good service to a good god, that's good, to me, and matters more than the dogma that would divide Goodness into true (Ours) and false (Someone else's). Goodness is good, and that's that.
Those who claim that other faiths' prayers for the good of all are acts of evil because they pray to a different god, or to god by a different name, I believe they are sorely wrong on that point.
The fact is, we won't know until it is time for us to know, and while we live on earth it it time to strive through our strife in pursuit of the essential goodnesses, ones ALL peoples share; compassion, charity, honesty and honour, strength and mercy, et cetera.
Humankind has an inbuilt morality, and if we personally know that our own morality needs bringing in line with the basic standards of ethical living and thinking, that is our work, not to ear-batter or burn the people who are quietly getting on with doing those things in the name of their god who we believe different to ours.
Please get in touch, Laura. =)
- x - Morgan, Salisbury, UK.
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