Comment on Does one's autism affect their religious beliefs? Why or why not?
Rottcodd@lemmy.ninja 11 months ago
I don’t know that it does, but I can see how it could.
One way that neurodivergence can manifest is as a relative inability to simply assume things - a relatively outsized need for clear evidence on which to base a conclusion. And religion is notably devoid of actual evidence.
Bloodwoodsrisen@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
That’s the main reason I don’t believe in any higher power. Sure there might be one, but where’s that evidence? I can’t use any of my senses to reach a solid conclusion on that subject. I’m quite happy to just let other people deal with religion
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 11 months ago
If I was an omnipotent being with an insatiable desire for affection from mortals, I’d probably be a lot more obvious about my existence.
Rottcodd@lemmy.ninja 11 months ago
Yeah - I don’t even really understand how all of that works. I see that people apparently sincerely believe, but I have no idea how - what it is that goes on inside their brains that allows them to make that leap to actually believing.
BluJay320@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
Generally it’s the lack of things going on inside their brain. Any level of critical thinking should make one agnostic at the very least
loopy@lemm.ee 11 months ago
For me it was ironically a theoretical physics video that made a religious belief really make sense. It was a video explaining how we can conceptualize 11 dimensions that would be possible on the information we collectively know now as humans. The way it made me really think about how truly expansive space and time are really made me think that “that’s not impossible to think that there is a 11th dimension being that has some agenda that we cannot understand.”
I imagine it’s like a child trying to understand something beyond their comprehension but it doesn’t change how true it is, like “brush your teeth because it lowers your risk of gums bleeding and leaking bacteria into your bloodstream and eventually causing vegetative infective endocarditis.” They’re just not going to understand that yet, but still reap the benefits later if they brush their teeth. I think it’s much easier and safer for the kid to say, “I’m just not going to brush my teeth.”
Bottom line is, I think that’s why it’s called faith, because it’s just not definitively provable or disprovable. I have personally had many tangible positive benefits in my life from having a faith but don’t think that should be forced upon anyone.
And I know many people in western cultures equate religion to Christianity, but just a quick reminder that there are many many faith systems that exist in the world.
Rottcodd@lemmy.ninja 11 months ago
Absolutely.
But that’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about making the leap from recognizing that such a being could exist to believing that such a being does exist. That, to me, is so bizarrely irrational that I can’t even work out how it is that people apparently actually do it.