Welcome to the hizzle! I was diagnosed with asperger's last summer (at 33!) Though I suspected I had it a few years back - pretty much as soon as I heard of it. Though Vox Day is an asshat, there may be some truth - as people with Asperger's do place a higher value on logic that neurotypicals.

On a side note, I'm still pissed how long it too for me to get diagnosed - all the signs were there as a child. Especially how unknown Asperger's was until VERY recently - I only ever heard of it maybe 3 years ago - which was more than 7 years after earning a BS in Psychology. Even looked back in my psych books - it was never mentioned once in any of them. All from the early to mid 1990s.

I also posses symptoms of Aspergers/Autism. Dislike of eye contact, obsessions over particular subject areas, a need for some things to be done a certain way, always following pavement (sidewalk to you lot) patterns with my feet (whilst pretending to walk normally). Its very mild, and I have no diagnosis of the condition, and nor do I particularly want to get diagnosed.

I was diagnosed as dyspraxic aged 5 and dyslexic aged 19. Both these conditions are of the same type as Autistic spectrum conditions (neuro diverse), and there's usually cross over of symptoms, since essentially all are caused by the same neurological defect (its insufficient development of the stuff that coats the neurones). They are classified by their symptoms, not by the causes of the symptoms.

I've found though, that thinking of myself as aspergian makes things worse for me, when I first discovered my similarities with the condition it magnified them and my behaviour became more and more autistic-like for a time. I'm not naturally socially inept but the more I saw myself in that light, the more socially awkward I became.

I do think that neuro-diverse people are more likely to be more rational, and less likely to stick to social norms, well those of us who are clever (I've met some pretty stupid dyslexics in my time). Maybe there are statistics on this I don't know, and nor do I really care all that much, because I think at the end of it, its just a small part of who we are, and there are clearly neuro-typical atheists too.

That's just silly, I'm HFA and a THEIST!

glug glug glug... goes their little boat.

I would suspect that since Autism is a disorder in socialization, that autistic people would be against going along with the social norms. So in America, that would mean being anti-theist, since the social/tribal/parental pressure is to be a theist. In a communist/atheist society, I would suspect autistic people would tend to be more anticommunist/theist since this would be against the social norm.

I think that disorders are a problem of balance. The goal for a healthy life should be a balance between socialization and individualism. Religion depends on people seeking the approval of others(parents, peers, members of opposite sex) in order to get people to go along with nutty ideas.

Seems to me like excessively religious people have the opposite disorder as autism. They mainly seek the approval of others, their main goal is acceptance by the group. They give up their identity, ideas and beliefs to gain acceptance from others. They do so even to the detriment of their own well being or sometimes life as in the case of Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, Islamic Jihadists. This hyper-socialization should be classified as a disorder just as is autism.

Since autistic people seek self approval self amusement and often live in their own little world, social acceptance/approval for religious "belief" would not be import to them.

I was a self procaimed theist for the first 30 years of my life.  I didn't start questioning it until I was 24 when I had an argument with another christian over whether salvation could be lost or not.  After realizing that verses in the bible were contradictory and could be taken to mean different things, I put down the bible and started thinking about my religion.  As the years went by it made less and less sense.

Finally I could no longer believe in it.  Becoming an atheist doesn't mean you have to break from your peers.  You can still act like you are a theist.  However, if you want to know the real truth people need to stop lieing to themselves and really think on their religion.

If I hadn't of done that I would still be a christian with Asperger's.

But she's an unusual Theist in that she choose her own unique belief system. Her belief doesn't seem to be affected by peer or social pressure, right Eloise?

Er, well yeah.. I've basically been affected by peer pressure one time in my life, when I was about 12, and even then it was kind of a purely intellectual exercise that I acted that way at all. What you said above makes a lot of sense to me, EXC, what you call hypersociality, I've noticed too and it always looked like an even worse affliction than my own pleasantly stolid lonerism. I was 7 when I started to notice people lying to themselves and others and comprimising in all kinds of ways for it and I thought then that it's a very strange and sad affliction.  So I guess you're right, my beliefs are never really affected by social pressure, I like puzzles, if a social situation is a puzzle then I'm interested, otherwise,  Meh.

Edit: Also, just to mention, I wouldn't say that people on the autistic spectrum choose anything just in order to buck the rules, autism and rebellion aren't exactly synonymous. I'd say autistics ignore the social rules, rather than deliberately rebel against them, when your brain works like this you just kind of dismiss anything that doesn't add up or keep up with the deductive process. Things like social rules get boring and mundane very quickly, you'd much rather contemplate social patterns than bother with social rules, so to speak.

That's weird, my autism quotient is 23, higher than average for males. Also the only other 2 atheist I know in real life has aspergers.

She's gone off into her own little world. (Sorry to offend, but just couldn't resist).

I wonder what the numbers are for countries that are not the US.

Here is my hypothesis. I live in a very conservative area, on the edge of the bible belt. Since people with AS tend to be less driven to follow social norms and being an atheist in a conservative area will tend to make you lonelier and won't win you many friends, its easier for someone with AS to be openly atheist and easier for them to openly question.

My son-in-law has Asperger's. Though he's very good at parroting back any 'book smarts' that he picks up, he has only a partial clue about many things and draws very illogical conclusions - not always, but many times. I believe that many ppl with Asperger's are confined to their senses and are mostly bereft of abstract thought on many matters. Things that require a logical thought process become simply the parroting back of things learned. again, some, not all.

dave