Friday, September 14, 2007
The Autism Link
Don't you hate it when you accidentally step in a pile of horse mess? I bet that is how Joe Carter felt when he speculated, and I emphasize, speculated, about a link between atheism and autism. So deep was the pile that Joe felt compelled to come back a week later and dig out. Judging from some of the comments, I'm wondering if Joe remembers the first rule of holes?
But all of the issues got lost in the arguement. There is deep and sincere wisdom buried in the original post:
People come to ideas, and they especially come to a confrontation with the Lord, along very different paths and with very different motivations. They come with life stories and mental frameworks and languages and prejudices that will radically affect how they hear and respond to the gospel message. The problem that Joe here confronts is not all that different than a missionary in a completely foreign culture.
It has been my priviledge to work in the People's Republic of China. China is a traditionally xeonphobic culture and I worked there in the late 1980's as they were opening their doors for the first time to western economic influence. There was a tendency at the time to blame the enormous thinking and communication gaps that I experienced on communism, which did have an affect. But working the Soviet Union just a year later, I soon discovered that the language and cultural difference were far more the issue than the economic systems.
In light of this discovery, I spent a lot of time thinking about what would have to happen for the gospel to deeply penetrate Chinese culture. I never came up with any good answers (could that be why I am not a foreign missionary?), but I am certain that the gospel in China will end up as something that many in the American church will consider heretical. We have a hard time sorting our culture from our faith, you know.
Then there is the PhD thesis that a Korean missionary friend of mine just completed on what the gospel must look like to penetrate Bangledesh where he has just returned, academic credentials now firmly in hand. I am quite certain there is a large segment of the American Evanglical community that would be less than pleased with his conclusions.
What are we to do? How are we to reach those in our own society whose mental frameworks are so different, whether because of will, or disorder, or simple upbringing - let alone those in nations and cultures so foreign?
But all of the issues got lost in the arguement. There is deep and sincere wisdom buried in the original post:
If the belief in other minds is analogous to belief in God, then individuals who have a propensity to "mind-blindness" would likely be "God-blind" as well. With effort, high functioning autistics may be able to overcome their inability to attribute mental states to other physical beings. But while they may be able to learn to accept the rationality of other minds, they may find it more difficult to develop a belief in a Being who is both non-physical.In these posts Joe has made a very extensive, if somewhat problematic argument, for something that strikes me as extremely obvious, but then in saying that, I violate the very lesson that is being taught.
If this is true and there is a correlation between autism and atheism, what would be the implications? Would it change the apologetic approach that Christians take in dealing with such unbelievers? Should it affect how we respond, knowing that the anti-social behavior is connected with their atheism?
People come to ideas, and they especially come to a confrontation with the Lord, along very different paths and with very different motivations. They come with life stories and mental frameworks and languages and prejudices that will radically affect how they hear and respond to the gospel message. The problem that Joe here confronts is not all that different than a missionary in a completely foreign culture.
It has been my priviledge to work in the People's Republic of China. China is a traditionally xeonphobic culture and I worked there in the late 1980's as they were opening their doors for the first time to western economic influence. There was a tendency at the time to blame the enormous thinking and communication gaps that I experienced on communism, which did have an affect. But working the Soviet Union just a year later, I soon discovered that the language and cultural difference were far more the issue than the economic systems.
In light of this discovery, I spent a lot of time thinking about what would have to happen for the gospel to deeply penetrate Chinese culture. I never came up with any good answers (could that be why I am not a foreign missionary?), but I am certain that the gospel in China will end up as something that many in the American church will consider heretical. We have a hard time sorting our culture from our faith, you know.
Then there is the PhD thesis that a Korean missionary friend of mine just completed on what the gospel must look like to penetrate Bangledesh where he has just returned, academic credentials now firmly in hand. I am quite certain there is a large segment of the American Evanglical community that would be less than pleased with his conclusions.
What are we to do? How are we to reach those in our own society whose mental frameworks are so different, whether because of will, or disorder, or simple upbringing - let alone those in nations and cultures so foreign?
May I suggest the same thing we do to get through today - rely on the Holy Spirit. Let me lay out some simple facts that we so readily forget:
- God is beyond our comprehension.
- Therefore, any understanding we have developed is inadequate, if we hold it too tightly, we are holding on to the wrong thing
- God is responsible for spreading the gospel, we are but His instruments.
- Therefore, we cannot and should not pretend that it is our job to figure all this out. It is just our job to get busy.
- God is big enough (He's infinite so I hope He is big enough) to handle many viewpoints.
God can reach the autistic and the Chinese, if we but get out of His way.
