"It's very simple," says Vox Day, in his typical controversial style, "Agnosticism is a belief in the lack of evidence for God's existence. Atheism is a symptom of a personality disorder which inordinately affects developmentally challenged young men. Watch and learn. Science will confirm this in the relatively near future."

Buried within the goading hyperbole is an interesting question: Is there a correlation between atheism and autism?

In earlier post Vox raised that as a possible hypothesis:

It's not just a figment of my imagination, it seems atheists truly are socially autistic by their own report. Asperger's Syndrome is a disorder described as "autistic psychopathy" by its discoverer, Dr. Hans Asperger. Those with the disorder tend to be intelligent, socially awkward and difficult to converse with. They are also likely to be male.

Based on Wired Magazine's observation that atheists tend to be quarrelsome, socially challenged men, to say nothing of the unpleasant personalities of leading public atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Michel Onfray, one could reasonably hypothesize that there is likely to be a strong correlation between Asperger's and atheism.

Asperger's Syndrome (AS) is a neurobiological disorder on the autism spectrum (some even claim it is merely High Functioning Autism). AS differs from typical cases of autism in that non-social aspects of intellectual development generally proceed at a normal or accelerated rate. Persons with AS show marked deficiencies in social skills and have a difficulty reading nonverbal cues (i.e., body language). Some positive characteristics, however, include things such as "enhanced mental focus, excellent memory abilities, superior spatial skills, and an intuitive understanding of logical systems. These characteristics can often lead to fulfilling careers in mathematics, engineering, the sciences, music, art, or language."

Are atheists more likely to have AS? To test this hypothesis, Vox compared the scores of 232 blog readers (both on his site and on PZ Myer's blog Pharyngula) who took the Asperger Quotient Test.

A score of 32 or more is generally taken to indicate Asperger's Syndrome or high-functioning autism (34 is considered a high score). The average man scores 18 and the average woman a 15. The average results of Vox's analysis, broken down by religion belief, were:

27.2 Atheist

20.0 Agnostic

19.0 Theist

By comparison I scored a 15 (average woman and average male/female biologist) and atheist PZ Myers (an actual biologist) scored a 24 (average math contest winner).

Vox is right that the "sampling is too subjective and self-selected to be meaningful." It does, however, hint that there may be a pattern. While there is only a slight variation between theist and agnostics, there is a wide divergence between those groups and atheists, who tend to fall higher up on the autism spectrum. Is there a correlation between atheism and autistic tendencies?*

I don’t have enough evidence to argue on way or the other. But for the sake of argument let's assume that it is a plausible hypothesis. What could be the connection?

For atheists, the explanation could be a simply matter of evolution. If theistic beliefs can be explained by appeals to "evolutionary advantage" then atheism should also be explained the process. Perhaps atheism is just a mental maladaption on the autism spectrum.

However, the majority of theists (and more than a few atheists) would probably want a more robust explanation. My own theory is that the correlation has to do with "mind detection." There is a theory that individuals with autism or Asperger’s syndrome are unable to theorize about other minds. Some researchers claim that the majority of individuals with autism are "mind-blind", that they (especially as children) are unable to "attribute mental states, such as dreaming, hoping, thinking, believing and wanting in others or in oneself."

So how would that relate to atheism? In his book "God and Other Minds", philosopher Alvin Plantinga presents an argument that one reviewer summarized as follows:

The novel feature of this book, however, is Plantinga's claim that although the arguments for God's existence fail, the grounds offered for our belief in other minds are also inadequate. Their inability to establish belief in other minds is similar to the inadequacy of the teleological argument for God's existence. Yet despite the weakness of the grounds one can offer, we believe in other minds and we hold that such a belief is rational. From this Plantinga makes the bold suggestion that ". . . if my belief in other minds is rational, so is my belief in God" (p. 271).

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.

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?

Of course, this entire hypothesis may be nothing more than silly speculation. But if its not, if there is a kernel of truth, then it might mean we Christians need to rethink how we approach our atheist neighbors. Are we willing to be that open about other people's minds?

For the commenters: If you have the time, please take the Asperger Quotient Test and report your scores in the comment box, along with whether you are a theist, atheist, or agnostic.

*To prevent any misunderstandings, let me be clear what I am not saying:

1. No, I'm not saying that all atheists are autistic. (The evidence seems to show that is not true.)
2. No, I'm not saying that autistic people tend to be atheists. (I have no idea whether they are or not.)
3. No, I don’t think that autism causes atheism or vice versa. (I think there is a correlation, not a causal relationship between the two.)
4. No, I'm not trying to offer an argument. I'm merely raising what I think is an intriguing question.
5. Yes, the title of this post is intentionally provocative and ultimately answered by an empathic "no."

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The author writes at www.evangelicaloutpost.com