Autism



In the hyper-empirical (autistic) world view, a person is seen as just a "collection of atoms" and since it is not improper to use, abuse, or manipulate atoms to one's own ends it is, therefore, not thought improper to use, abuse, or manipulate people to one's own ends. (Treating people like objects is a well known symptom of autism.)

On the face of it, this almost seems reasonable. After all, we are indeed made entirely of atoms (or some other units that can be modeled mathematically). It fails, however, to take into account the emergent phenomena that make a human being so much more than "just atoms". Atoms don't have thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams, or aspirations but people do. Clearly, being "made of" something (for example atoms) is not the same thing as "being" something.

Sometimes hyper-empirical people will avoid the phrase "humans are just atoms" and will opt instead for "humans are just animals". Both phrases express the same underlying idea.

Hyper-empirical people do not think in terms of good vs bad or right vs wrong. They think in terms of great vs not great.

In the same way that life is an emergent property of chemistry so civilization and civilized behavior is an emergent property that arises whenever you have a large number of objective people interacting with one another. Autistic people have difficulty understanding the concept of emergence and its implications.

Autistic people have difficulty seeing the purpose of objects or events. One woman with autism writes in her blog that: "The world I perceived was a random, self-sufficient system. It wasn't built; it grew. (When I was little, I thought houses and roads were some kind of large plant that grew out of the ground; if you had told me people made them I would've been thunderstruck)."

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Multi-dimensional

 * Religion: The only winning move is not to play.

What appears to be one-dimensional, black and white, yes or no sometimes turns out to be multi-dimensional.

Its the same with atheism vs theism which at first appears to be one-dimensional but is actually two-dimensional.

Religion is how autistic people (strictly speaking hyper-empirical people) see civilization. They see a distorted image because they do not fully understand emergence. (Law and life are emergent properties.)

In autistic minds:


 * where there are laws there must be a law-giver.
 * where there is life there must be a life-giver.

In autistic minds:


 * without a law-giver all laws are arbitrary and meaningless.
 * without a life-giver life is arbitrary and meaningless.

Therefore autistic people only see 2 possibilities:


 * The Theist position: God exists and therefore law and life are neither arbitrary nor meaningless.
 * The Atheist position: God doesnt exist and therefore law and life are arbitrary and meaningless.

But it isnt that simple. There are 2 more possibilities:


 * God exists and law and life are arbitrary and meaningless.
 * God doesnt exist and law and life are neither arbitrary nor meaningless.

So its actually two-dimensional


 * {| border=1 style="border-collapse: collapse;"

! bgcolor=yellow | God exists ! bgcolor=yellow | God doesnt exist ! bgcolor=yellow | Life and law are neither arbitrary nor meaningless ! bgcolor=yellow | Life and law are arbitrary and meaningless
 * Theism
 * Civilizationism
 * Civilizationism
 * Dystheism
 * Atheism
 * Atheism
 * }

There are 4 possible positions: 1) The Theist position: There exists a magical and totally selfless being called 'god' that enforces a code of conduct called morality. In the modern vernacular "morality" is a synonym for "godliness". 2) The Atheist position: There is no 'god' therefore there is no morality (only mob rule) and everyone is free to do whatever they can get away with. 3) The Rationalist position: There is no such thing as moral or immoral behavior (and therefore no such thing as 'sin'). There is only civilized and uncivilized behavior. Civilized behavior is behavior that respects civilized laws, rules, and expectations. Civilized laws are laws that do not give any one person or any one group of people any special rights above what all others have. The more a society treats everyone as equals the more civilized it is. 4) The Dystheism position

Story of King Canute:

"King Canute set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the incoming tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes. Yet continuing to rise as usual [the tide] dashed over his feet and legs without respect to his royal person. Then the king leapt backwards, saying: 'Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings.' He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix, and never wore it again."

- King Canute and the tide

Never turn your back on the ocean.

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