Autism, Religion and Belief

Autism and religion are two rather controversial topics, but this is a neutral, sociological perspective of the relationship between the two.

I talk about my personal experiences of religion and why I am an atheist, the appeal of religion for autistic people (but also but it might not appeal), the historical role of clergy, and a few problematic ways in which religion could manipulate autistic people.

By the way, forgot to mention what my Masters degree was in: Religion in Contemporary Society!

(☕If you like my content and just want to “tip” me, you can buy me a single Ko-Fi ☕)

[graysthenewblonde]

I am Autistic and a Christian but have a hard time going to church because of my social anxiety so I
“Worship” God on my own.

[sixbirdsinatrenchcoat]

“I find no comfort in illusion” - This resonates so much with me.

[alexc]

The silence in Buddhist organizations I’ve experienced is gold. Just sitting together meditating is an easy social interaction since it gives an excuse to just be together without talking. Afterward, there’s an easy subject to talk about. I clearly can see how stims may clash with this, of course. Maybe an, “Are you sure you’re not just anxious?” here and there. I developed more discreet and/or accepted stims and meditation helps me manage my emotions too, so I haven’t had this be much of a problem. What I have dealt with is occasionally being bugged by someone breathing loudly haha. We do also get more of those “I’m a hugger” type people. God bless them, but people aren’t always in the mood to say the least.

At least as we find it in the west, it’s just a more open minded community too.

As for how I came to Buddhism, I’ve found the perspective both very helpful and more logically sound. While I have faith in some force that lies outside current scientific understanding, it is exactly that and I’m quite agnostic. I find that Buddhism makes few assumptions. One can even be an atheist Buddhist if you think not believing in reincarnation doesn’t exclude you (though it is possible to have a world with no deity but reincarnation or believe the world’s like that). I can’t adequately contest the 4 noble truths which form the ideological foundation of the faith, and I find their message that there exists a way of being all can access that frees them from suffering inspiring.

[thedigitalautist]

I'm autistic (undiagnosed until adulthood), and was raised Christian. It brought out some OCD tendencies in me. I was terrified of dying suddenly and going to hell if I hadn't repented my latest sins. So I would have a constant prayer on repeat in my head: "Dear Jesus please forgive me for all my sins, amen." Over and over. I couldn't stop.


As I grew older, that lessened, but I still felt ashamed for just being, essentially. Finally, when I moved out to go to university, I learned to start thinking about religion and politics for myself, rather than just parroting what I heard from my parents (who are extremely conservative).


I have since stopped really claiming to be Christian (which I haven't really told my family... my sister is a minister, so...yeah...). However, I don't call myself atheist, either. Because I WANT to believe. I WANT to have faith in something. But my logical brain is like "Nope, that's all bullshit."


Most recently I have found myself drawn to witchcraft and pagan beliefs. I don't believe that magic is real (though I want to), but a lot about witchcraft is basically putting your intentions out into the world, and trying to get them to manifest. As far as my pagan leanings go, I feel connected to certain deities, whether or not they're real. Their stories and lore teach me things about myself, and in honoring them (which I consider different than worshiping them) I feel closer to nature and my ancestors. My logical brain is telling me "You know this woo-woo stuff is all bullshit, right?" but my drive to have something deeper to cling to has, so far, drowned it out.


So anyway, as a late diagnosed autistic adult (I was 32), the above has been my journey with religion.


Uh. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk?

[LittleBallOfPurr]

I keep being surprised with realising that different parts of who I am are influenced by my recently discovered Autistic traits, it's like you're speaking my mind in a way that others never really understood. Live long and prosper.

[KoalemosTheAtomizer]

I don't think I've ever heard someone with a more similar train of thought to me! I recently started looking into autism and I'm very glad I found this channel. Keep it up!

[unevenspleener]

Thank you Samdy Sam for this even-handed video. I'm autistic and a devoted Christian. I place NO faith in an organized religion or clergy of any kind. If you read the bible, you'll see that the harshest words of Jesus Christ were directed at the religious leaders of his day. I feel no compulsion to try to convert others to my way of thinking. I appreciate this video because I've often wondered how autistic people relate to faith in God. Thanks again.

[spoonietimelordy]

Totally agree with you. A weird things with me was that until I was around 15, I didn't even realized that people were actually believing in their religion, I was certain that it was just metaphorical for everyone, I couldn't even imagine that some people really believed that everything written in their religious book was true. Because since it wasn't logical and it was going against everything science based that I was learning it wasn't even an option for me to believe in something which was going against facts.
It's still hard for me to understand but I'm really passionate about it now and learning about why people believe is so fascinating.

[mts.camilo]

I’m a bit late to the discussion, but I really loved the way you presented the topic. It was so balanced and insightful! In fact, I’m not diagnosed (yet) but being in a Catholic seminary is being the best experience of my life, as the routine, silence, openness to profound studies, availability to develop my special interests and the chance to live the faith in a more intimate and meaningful way than only repeated outward popular devotions is truly refreshing. After being singled out as a nerdy weirdo for quite a while, I’m at peace in a place I feel at home.

[liza]

I wouldn’t have minded the 2 hour long video on this topic! So interesting 🤩
I also don’t find any comfort in illusion. I’ve never knew how to express this. I like it phrased like this! Thanks for a great video! 👍

[SincerelyLASMR]

For me belief and faith are separate from religion and tradition. I find that I think WAY different than other Christians and I cannot stand to be in a "church" setting because i pick up on the feeling of "fake" and the "we are better than every other church, human, and creature" vibes and I just wanna run out instantly lol. I also find where I live the messages they "preach" are extremely hypocritical and not in line at all with what Jesus actually taught. But it always baffles me because it seems I am literally the ONLY person who thinks this much about it. It's almost like people are worshipping the bible and their church families more than Christ and I dont understand why they cant see that the bible tells us not to do this. But as usual I'm always the weird one and no one gets me so 🤷‍♀️ haha

But idk that's just my feelings and I struggle so much with this. I wish I could find some people who wanted to truly worship and not just put on a show or look a certain way on sundays. I have not been diagnosed but I literally relate to everything you (and many other autism channels) speak of when you talk about your experiences. So I'm pretty sure I am 💜 Sorry this is so long but it's just a perspective that may be interesting and possibly different than others here .... or the same, who knows :P

[hugdispenser]

I was raised as Muslim and so far only self diagnosed autistic. Anyway. I was raised like many of other people but to me it felt very forced “you do this thing cause I told you and you must be scared of eternal post-death punishment”. That was too much for little me. I viewed prayers as a routine and eventually as just a chore I did to avoid getting in trouble. It started to get troubling after I hear that other people around me felt so much during that. Usually feeling peace and safety when I felt overwhelmed. It made me feel broken. I cried so much at night begging this god to mend my heart so I would feel something. And when I didn’t I convinced myself he doesn’t want me to have that feeling and that’s when I decided that I don’t have to actually do my prayers I just have to say that I did. That way I can not get in trouble and no longer feel broken. It’s certainly heartbreaking how I was taught they being a good person equated to being in the religion. That if I’m not in the religion but I’m also not a dick to people it won’t matter in the grand scheme of the universe in the afterlife. After many years of crying and anger and depression and anxiety and just all kinds of shit relating to religious trauma I understand now that the religion I was taught is not for me. I can still be a part of it but I’ll have to do things differently and unlearn so many things. And that certainly makes me feel better however I still have to keep up this image of the once religious girl to my family as to not be disowned.

[stonescorpio]

Paganism became my special interest when I was in high school after a friend lent me her book on Wicca. By then, I'd realized I couldn't really buy into Christianity, so I was religion-shopping. I read all kinds of books on polytheistic and nature-based religions, but I never wound up practicing any of them. I suspect that some of the "spells" in those books would make very effective placebos (and hey, everyone could use a good placebo sometimes), but I could never believe in any of them working as offered. That said, I can still enjoy reading a table of correspondences or researching the history of ceremonial magic.

[DoughBrain]

I’m an electic neopagan. I really enjoy how flexible my religion can be. No two people practice or believe the same thing. It also involves a lot of research into mythology. Which is really nice since learning and sharing information I find is incredibly fun for me. I also love that I can learn things from other people just by talking about it. Also there is more than just one book and none of them are meant to be followed strictly unless you want to. (The last bit I’ll say is that I don’t have to follow any specific rules.). EDIT: I forgot to mention I’m autistic. I’m not exactly used to having to state that.

[mike]

I once almost laughed at my great grandmother's funeral during one of the hymns. Personally I don't have anything with religion, so I have no clue what hymn it was, but something with Jesus holding your heart in his hand. I definitely knew it was a metaphor, but I had a really hard time not laughing at the mental image of someone holding your literal beating heart.

[cinnamonandbooks]

Thank you for making this video! I have not been diagnosed with autism, but I relate very heavily with this video. When I was younger, I was a stickler for the rules and would follow them without questions. So when I went to religious school, I assumed that everything they were saying was fact, and that I had to believe it. But I remember in 4th grade my mom mentioned that not everybody believes in god, and I went on this spiral of thinking that everything I was told was a lie, because I was taught in a way that presented religion as fact. In middle school I remember crying because I couldn't believe that nuns and priests dedicated their entire lives to something that wasn't real. I used to be so confused and think that everyone was crazy for blindly believing in something without any factual evidence of it being real. I always had this idea in my head that I (as an atheist) was right, and everyone else was wrong and stupid because I didn't think that there was any sort of comfort in believing in something without fact. It's been such a journey for me to get to the point where I am now (at 20 years old) accepting that other people need something to believe in, even if it means without evidence, to feel more comfortable about the idea of death, and to feel secure about the meaning of their life and the meaning of our existence. I've had so many conversations with therapists just ranting about religion and why I just don't understand it, having been immersed in a world of religion through my entire childhood. Sorry for the rant!

[johnholmes]

Excellent creation, Sam. It was everything you promised, and more.

[PatsyCollyer]

Interesting video. Thank you, John - and Sam!

I’m a late-diagnosed autistic. And if people didn’t think I was ‘strange’ enough already, I’m also a pagan tarot reader. 😊

[Ally.F.O]

I am Muslim, and I'm not diagnosed as an autistic person, but I'm pretty sure i am autistic. I think that's why I love watching your videos, because I can relate to about 97% of your experiences, especially this particular video. I hate to think about faith and God the way most Muslims do. I know my thoughts annoy the hell out of conventional Muslims, so I avoid talking about religion with anybody. I relate a lot to when you talked about learning about religion as a child and thinking "oh that does not make any sense I refuse to believe it". That's so me! I have always refused to believe whatever things that do not make sense. Being a logical thinker and a religious person is extremely hard, but I still always find a way to do it, always looking for logical answers to my questions until I find the answers that satisfy my logic

[sheryl]

Wow, this is something I can totally relate to.

When I was in my middle school, I can never grasp the idea of blind faith to a religion. No one around me could ever explain why other than the fact that “it have always been like this”, “don’t question”.
The act of appealing to an authority or a higher power just annoys me so much.
Even a politician, or a prime minister isn’t respected by default in my mind at that age unless they can sufficiently demonstrate their abilities and usefulness.

I only went to the church twice in my lifetime, when I just want to make friends and fit in.. but I left shortly after, as I was constantly being made to read the Bible and attend the sessions..
I just knew I was an atheist very early on, while no one else in my class ever talks about it

I’ve always been a very critical and independent thinker 😁 no peer pressure, friends, or families or social norms can change my mind


And in terms of gender, I am pretty asexual too.