Yes, Aspergers have a "normal" soul, in so much as we are all individuals and the soul is the root of that individuality. Aspergers is a form of ego - a coping mechanism for stuff we can't cope with.
However, there are some that say Aspergers are also special souls, being more enlightened and aware of the real universe than "normal" people and it is this knowledge that is often the root of our aspergers. I'd generally agree with that. We know we are different, the world beats us up because of that difference, we adopt coping strategies and they have side effects that show, amongst other things as aspergers and autism.
A lot of my being beaten up by society was based on religion during my childhood, so I have been very negative of all forms of religion. This is not because of the religion itself of course, but because of the interpretation of my abusers, nontheless, dogma gets us nowhere, dogma is the false god, it confuses us into thinking that we must all agree ot our view of spirituality when in actual fact we each have our own unique view and it is this that is important, not the crap that others try to push into our brain.
Actually, the number of Athiests on Earth have been decreasing,
although most athiests say they "Don't Believe It."
(got this from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, featuring Kevin Eubanks and "The Tonight Show Band"... Really funny guy; he makes even normal things sound funny.)
yes you would prebly be reicated as an aspie/autie it you think of a life and souls as a map and travelers respectivly. In the biginning your born- billions of pathes all with branches like a tree cris-crossing, they all lead to the same place the 'end' of this life.your chooses or the chioces of your perants in the beginning choose which pathes are open to you.will you always choose the same pathes no, but you will be the same.
I adhere fairly closely to the doctrines of the Orthodox Church in regards to the soul. In my belief, the soul is an integral part of a living person--or any living thing, although human souls, like human bodies, are not identical to (but bear resemblance to) animal souls. However, the complete person is body and soul. The soul includes the "noetic functions"--akin to the "mind" as the term is normally used. Thus, I have an Aspergic soul united with my Aspergic body. Note that I say "united with", not "in" or "inhabiting". The whole person for me is the body and soul together. I believe that, in the New World, I would have a perfected body and perfected soul, and I would still be an Aspie!
for the mental exercise soccerfreak proposes we need several things.
@first, we need an accepted definition of soul.
-What is a soul, and what are its characteristics?
@Now we need to list the evidence that supports the existence of souls
-Is the soul evident through our actions or capacities?
-Does it have memory?
-Is the soul evident as a part of our mind?
-Is the soul our mind?
-Is self-awareness the same as the concept of soul?
If so, we should be aware that when humans face a lesion to their brain, their capacities, actions, memory and self awareness (any aspect of their mind) can be affected. So one would be obliged to accept that the soul has a biological basis. And would be mortal. Just a phenomenon produced by our brain activity...
@If the soul was something else, not involved with self awareness, memory, capacities, etc... then there would be still a lot of questions.
can a soul change? Do souls evolve? can they face extinction? Are there any laws governing the behaviour of souls? Do animals besides humans have a soul? Does any life form have a soul? If so, are these souls the same or are there differences? what causes this differences?
What is the nature of souls?
And the most important...
Do we have something better to do with our time besides wondering about obsolete attempts to explain the human mind?
A soul, as in important part of a human been, not related to its physical body, seems to be an important antecedent to support the idea of after death life.
As some religions are interested in making people concerned about the after death life, the soul would have to be embedded of some characteristics. At least, self-awareness, memory, will, and the ability to enjoy or suffer. Without these characteristics, the mere idea of a heaven or hell as a reward or punishment for our earthly actions would be ridiculous.
For the sake of fun, I will consider two scenarios.
@In the first scenario the soul would be independent of our conditions as aspies.
This means that after death, we would be similar to any NT. Our likes and dislikes would be different. If we had the joy of going to heaven then we would spend all the eternity chatting, and at parties and doing all the things that NT's like to do... As Aspies we would die, due to the tragic death of our personality.
I guess I would prefer to keep on being the same person after death... I like being an aspie. I don't want to change.
So let's see the next scenario...
@In the second scenario our souls are the basins of our aspiness.
Then, when I die, I would keep on being an aspie. I would like to do the things I like to do now. I will be me.
So if I am lucky enough to get to heaven I will chat and dance and sing and do parties till the end of times!!!!!!!
ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!! I'd rather go to hell.
I told you this was for the sake of fun :p
I reckon that would be the case also, merely the body is Autistic/Aspergic.
flame me all ya want non-believers, as if I give a ***.
Ian
It's atypical for an Aspergic to think that a "soul" exists, as we are all supposed to be clinical scientific types who only believe in the physical universe.
I believe the mind gives rise to the soul, dead is dead, and there is no such thing as reincarnation. That's the simplest, most logical way to see the world and it strictly adheres to what we observe. There is no logical reason to believe anything other than that, and I could not possibly convince myself otherwise without being shown real evidence to the contrary. That means we have Autistic souls or Asperger's souls or NT souls - souls of whatever we are.
I can pretend to believe otherwise, but then everything begins to conflict and falls to pieces and I have to laugh for thinking something so ridiculous. Sorry if that offends you.
How can you convince yourself of something when you know you're only believing it because there's some benefit to believing it, and not because it's true?
Let's pretend for a moment that it is a FACT that IF I believe the moon is made of cheese, THEN I will become extremely rich. However, there is no logical evidence that tells me it could be true- just plenty of evidence to the contrary. As much as I might WANT to believe the moon is made of cheese, because I know I would be rich if I did, I simply cannot convince myself of it.
Ok, I'm an atheist, but if I DID believe in the 'soul' I would think my 'soul' would just be my consciousness without my body.
My consciousness will always have aspie traits, they are a big part of what makes me think and behave the way I do, so therefore my 'soul' would have aspie traits too. The only difference would be that my 'soul' would be less clumsy as it wouldn't have a body to be clumsy with.
Does any of that make sense?
Discussing the specifics of heaven and after-life is a bit like debating "What color was Napoleon's car?"
Do we have something better to do with our time besides wondering about obsolete attempts to explain the human mind?
I thought I had already said something like that.
But I should concede that, as some friend said, there might be some benefits related to believing in religion. It is a fact that most cultures have ridiculous and illogical beliefs. So the need to believe in a god or anything similar could be an instinct. I think that Desmond Morris wrote about this.
This mere possibility would explain some benefits. Those who follow that instinct would be less stressed.[/align]
If you like to do those things, then what's wrong with doing those things?
Likewise, who is to say that "heaven" is the sort of materialistic wet-dream that modern Western culture makes it out to be?
Well the fact is that I do not like those things. I was trying to make a joke. Sorry If I was not clear enough.
To your last comment I could jokingly respond "But then, who is to say that there is such a thing as heaven?". I won't respond this officially as I'd rather prefer to respect your beliefs.
It's atypical for an Aspergic to think that a "soul" exists
Prove it.
Prove the sample from which you have drawn your conclusion is valid.
I don't know, but I have observed lots of scientific/skeptical types on AFF.
It may be because we have a tendency to being blunt/honest, seeing things at their core, whatever that core appears to be.
It's atypical for an Aspergic to think that a "soul" exists, as we are all supposed to be clinical scientific types who only believe in the physical universe.
All supposed to be? That is what the stereotypes would have you believe, I suppose, but such a stereotype leaves no room for divergence or diversity. Like subscribing to the idea that all aspies are emotionless, imagination deprived robots. Or do we want others to think that we are not capable of a variety of religious / spiritual beliefs?
(My NT mother is far more skeptical than me when it comes to the physical universe. I always hold to the notion -- which is no less logical than any other -- that whatever has not been disproven remains possible. I will not be the one to insist on that which has not been proven, nor to deny the belief in what remains unknown.)
Well said. I should point out I'm probable AS (possibly AS/NT hybrid, who knows) and I am highly expressive/imaginative for Aspie-ness.
I hold to the belief, thus far, that I am a less typical Aspie.