Runboard.com
Слава Україні!



🙂       Use the black navigation bar to log in or create your account.

 
Susa Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

Citizen


Registered: 07-2006
Province: Oχάιο
Posts: 340
Karma: 11 (+11/-0)
ReplyQuote
All autistic kids are atheists and atheism is a form of autism



That’s the opinion of Fehmi Kaya, head of the Health and Education Associations for Autistic Children in Adana, Turkey. Autistic children are atheists, he said, “due to a lack of a section for faith in their brains.”

From TimeTurk (English edition) 4/22/13:

    “Autistic children do not know believing in God because they do not have a section of faith in their brains,” Kaya said, according to daily Milliyet.

    Kaya said the underdevelopment of faith sections in the brain caused autistic children to not believe in God.

    “That is why they don’t know how to pray, how to believe in God. It is needed to create awareness in these children through methods of therapy.”

    Kaya added that autistic children should undergo treatment to “create areas of faith in their brain.”


Apparently, it’s not the children’s fault. According to Kaya whose degree is in sociology, they are born atheists because of the missing faith section. “Research,” he adds, “says atheism and autistic children are linked. Researchers in the USA and Canada say that atheism is a different form of autism.”

A backlash from individuals and autism associations throughout Turkey has caused Kaya to complain that his remarks were taken out of context by news reports.



Story here

---

SS eH PF
4/30/2013, 2:28 pm Link to this post PM Susa Read Blog
 
Lesigner Girl Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

Minerva
Head of Runboard staff

Registered: 11-2005
Posts: 9606
Karma: 132 (+147/-15)
ReplyQuote
Re: All autistic kids are atheists and atheism is a form of autism


Yeah, sure. And religiosity is a form of schizophrenia. emoticon

There may actually be a correlation in both cases, but one doesn't equal the other. If someone hears voices in their head, this could lead them to believe a supernatural entity is speaking to them. Likewise, many people with autism are highly analytical, which may prevent them from believing things without evidence.

That's not to say all religious people have a form of schizophrenia and/or are unintelligent, or all atheists are autistic and/or can think analytically.

I think analytically, but I don't have any trouble communicating or interacting with people, like those with autism do. There are also plenty of atheists who don't think analytically, even though many may like to think they're oh so intelligent just because they've memorized a few facts and arguments, and they may or may not be on the spectrum.

There is a correlation between education and lack of religiosity, but a lot can depend on one's area(s) of study. Many highly intelligent people are religious, but most biologists and physicists, for example, are not.


“Autistic children do not know believing in God because they do not have a section of faith in their brains,” Kaya said, according to daily Milliyet.


I can see this as a possibility, but I would like to see some peer-reviewed studies before I believe it to be true. Nevertheless, even if it were true, who is Kaya to say that's a bad thing? It reminds me of this quote by Martin Luther:

"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God."


Luther was warning people to avoid using reason, knowing it would lead many people away from their faith. It was actually reason, based on evidence that we didn't even have back in Luther's day, that led me to lose what little faith I had in the Christian tale. I had just taken for granted that God was real and Jesus died and was resurrected because that's what I was raised to believe, but once I started reading the Bible as an adult, my sense of reason kicked in and said, "WTF? These weren't just childrens' stories they were telling us in Sunday school? This is what adults actually believe? It goes against everything we know to be true," and that was pretty much the end of my Christian beliefs right there.

So, yeah. Although reason isn't the only thing that leads people away from religiosity or prevents them from engaging in it to begin with, reason is what does it for many of us. And since people with autism are often highly analytical, I can see a possible correlation between autism and a lack of religiosity, but one shouldn't make the mistake of equating the two like Kaya did, because analytical thinking is only one of many possible roads to atheism.

---
Runboard Knowledge Base
Runboard Support Forums
Find other message boards
5/1/2013, 4:04 am Link to this post PM Lesigner Girl Read Blog
 
Susa Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

Citizen


Registered: 07-2006
Province: Oχάιο
Posts: 340
Karma: 11 (+11/-0)
ReplyQuote
Re:


I agree that analytical thinking is only one of many possible roads to atheism. A lot of social things can happen that destroy faith.

---

SS eH PF
5/1/2013, 11:57 am Link to this post PM Susa Read Blog
 
Lesigner Girl Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

Minerva
Head of Runboard staff

Registered: 11-2005
Posts: 9606
Karma: 132 (+147/-15)
ReplyQuote
Re: All autistic kids are atheists and atheism is a form of autism


Certainly. Social situations can also turn people toward a different religion than the one they were raised with, deism, or a more agnostic belief in some undefined greater power.

Even some atheists will believe in things like alien abductions and the Illuminati, or even ghosts and reincarnation. I can kind of understand the alien abduction belief, for those who aren't aware of phenomena like sleep paralysis. With an estimated 100 billion galaxies within seeing distance with our current technology, life on other planets seems highly probable, although having been visited by any of them from so far away seems very unlikely. What I don't understand is when people believe in things like ghosts and reincarnation (both of which would require a disembodied soul) when they don't believe in any gods.

---
Runboard Knowledge Base
Runboard Support Forums
Find other message boards
5/1/2013, 11:00 pm Link to this post PM Lesigner Girl Read Blog
 


Add to this discussion



You are not logged in (login)
Back To Top

This board's time is GMT.