02 April 2008

Good Idea!

Ok, so I've been asked what I think about the number of children diagnosed with autism. Are there more autistic kids out there now than there were before? Or what?

Hm. I think it's a good idea to at least *talk* about this sometime during a month dedicated to autism awareness, don't you?

Reverse Evolution

I've heard arguments from various preachers in favour of REVERSE evolution. That we are getting further and further away from the perfection in the Garden of Eden. Used to be that you could marry your sister and genetically things would be okie-dokie. Now you have to be second cousins, and even then it's kind of a gamble what you'll wind up with genetically. Should Jesus tarry, things will get even worse.

My response

So, if my child has an illness, it's because I have MORE sin than the parents whose children have no problems? I had no clue God graded on a curve like that before! Thanks for the comforting thought.

I'm not sure that I agree with this notion even hypothetically because I can't imagine that the passage of TIME would necessarily make the effect of sin worse on the human gene pool. I say that especially in light of Christ's redeeming work on the cross and the healing that that is supposed to be able to bring to the believer. (Yes, not everyone is healed and we can discuss the apostle Paul and his eyesight some other day.)

It also, I believe, is an opinion that would logically make one less responsible for sin. I can't possibly be expected to adhere to the same code of conduct as you are because I'm bipolar. Or have anger control issues. Or maybe because I don't jolly well feel like it and those feelings are the direct result of problems in my gene pool. It's GENETIC and so I don't need to work on it. But you see, the way I understand the Bible (imperfectly, I admit right now!!), I'm a sinner. Whether it's genetic or not is immaterial. I fall short of GOD's code of conduct and need salvation. If I have autism, I might also need you to cut me a break every now and then. But sin is sin whether I have autism, bipolar, dwarfism, lefthandedness, or *whatever.* Please give me grace and some understanding if I have a condition, but hold me accountable as well if you're truly my friend.

Darwinian Evolution

I've also heard the evolution argument. Autism helps the caveman hunt for stuff without distracting little human relationships.

My response

But someone who has what would be commonly termed "severe" autism really doesn't have survival skills. God bless them, they need folks without the condition to be sure they don't run into the street or injure themselves. If evolution were an ironclad FACT, wouldn't there be fewer autistic folks with each successive generation? It isn't like most people with "severe" autism marry and have several children apiece. And I put "severe" in quotes because I really hate putting people on some sliding scale from "mild" to "severe" as though they were earthquakes, but I felt I needed to in this instance so that we would all be somewhat on the same page, if you will.

I don't understand how, according to the Darwinist, we should have so many people who are inherently homosexual. They wouldn't go have large families either, one wouldn't imagine. Leaving God aside (that's a big aside!), I could see where evolution would work in eliminating blonde people within a few generations, but not in CREATING them. But perhaps I won't "go there" this post because I'm not ready to play the who's-a-racist game when the topic is autism. (We can play that game when the topic is race, ok?)

So, what's MY theory?

OK, here it is: Adam and Eve got kicked out of the garden. Ever since then, people have died of sickness, disease, old age and murder. Sometimes even animals eat 'em. Just when people think they have some new medicine to wipe out polio, here comes HIV to kill more people. It's no fun living this side of heaven. I'm not making light of disease and sickness. I'm just saying there is so much out there we don't understand. What we understand as "autism" today might actually be 10 different problems, each with a different cause. Maybe autism has been around since Adam and Eve's fall, and before we just thought that person A was mentally impaired and person B had a mental illness and person C was just eccentric... but now medically speaking, we recognize A, B, and C to all have varying degrees of autism.

I've gone out on a limb and said what I think. It's subject to change without notice, you know. I'm open to new ideas and theories. What's yours?

5 comments:

  1. I dont think there is more autism out there. The diagnostoc criteria has become wider, hense children are now being diagnosed who wouldnt have been before.
    Ive never heard the reverse evolution therory before!!
    Some interesting thoughts, however i go with genetics and envirnment.
    We all have varying degrees of normal!
    An interesting post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So does this mean that we've had 'autistic' people in such great numbers among us all along? Hmmm. I wonder why they decided to start diagnosing it as such and what they diagnosed it as before.

    I am not sure I understand the reverse evolution theory. Have you ever heard of the vaccine/ autism connection? What do you think of that? The media is having me afraid to get my kid vaccinated now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, I've heard of the vaccine/autism thing. Not sure that that ALONE would cause a neurotypical child to become an autistic child. But putting thimerosol into shots is just dumb. Why do it? Yes, it's a preservative. There are other ways of delivering shots to the populace, I'm sure. Now they are mostly single-use vials.

    Flu shots STILL have thimerosol, FYI.

    I would be MORE concerned about aborted fetal cells used to make the shots. Go to the CDC website and type in "aborted fetal cells" and see what you get. We're opting out of rubella shots b/c of this. You can only get the measles and mumps separately in FRANCE, so I guess that means no MMR at all.

    ReplyDelete
  4. As a former special ed teacher who worked often with autistic children I agree a hundred percent. In fact at some point in the 80's I think they changed the rules about what autism is broadening the spectrum. I believe it was around the time that the newer inclusion in education act was passed and they changed it as a way of defining and labeling. It is a spectrum disorder--there is no "THIS" is autism, it is very broad and since there is no real solid definition it is easy to group large numbers under it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Autism was given a name in 1943 before that they thought it was somekind of Schizophrenia (for the less able ones)

    Mrs C i agree with you about the vaccines.

    ReplyDelete

Non-troll comments always welcome! :)

Bringing Garbage Home

Some people up the street were throwing this table away. It was in pretty bad shape and one of the legs was off. I've glued the leg back...