Comments on: Are Atheists Autistic?

By: Peter Kirk

Peter Kirk — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:52:17 +0000

Fair enough. I’m more worried about the millions of others around the Internet who have little or no protection against such malware. If they start letting whatever this is infect their blogs etc as well the Internet could be seriously compromised.

By: Henry Neufeld

Henry Neufeld — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:47:59 +0000

Well, since this won’t nest any more I’ll comment here. You do make a good point, though since I’ve read evangelical outpost pretty much since I started paying attention to the blogosphere with no ill effects, and I have pretty good security and checks on this system, I simply decided, like the reviewers on the Site Advisor entry, that there was some kind of glitch.

I’ll put a note in the body of the post next to the link to evangelical outpost giving warning. For the moment I’m going to continue to read eo.

By: Peter Kirk

Peter Kirk — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:18:40 +0000

Henry, if you are getting this kind of warning you really should take heed of it, stop accessing the site, and refrain from encouraging others to. It seems to be infected by a virus or something of that sort, perhaps trying to install some kind of malware or spyware on to users’ systems.

I am not suggesting that Joe Carter is doing this deliberately. But he was warned about it several weeks ago and has not fixed the problem.

I would never suggest a boycott of a blog for its content, at least unless it were grossly offensive. But I do think that a blog which attempts (even if accidentally) to infect readers’ computers should be avoided by all.

By: Henry Neufeld

Henry Neufeld — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:55:16 +0000

Peter,

I’m not sure what to do on that. The link worked for me at the time I posted it, and I can access evangelical outpost, though McAfee’s Site Advisor does give a warning for it.

I advised Joe Carter of the problem, but that is as far as I can go on it. It appears that some others are getting through.

BTW, I cannot access piepalace.ca right now myself, though I could earlier. I’ll continue to check.

By: Peter Kirk

Peter Kirk — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:51:16 +0000

Henry, I would be more likely to comment if your links were not all broken, at least for me. I can never access Evangelical Outpost, of which it has been reported that

this site attempted to make unauthorized changes to our test PC by exploiting a browser security vulnerability. This is a serious security threat which could lead to an infection of your PC.

And http://www.piepalace.ca, where the test is supposed to be, is reported as “Non-existent domain”.

By: BruceA

BruceA — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:19:43 +0000

Wow. I don’t know where to start. My experience, too, is that most atheists I know are not quarrelsome or socially challenged. Beyond that, I find it disturbing that Joe Carter uses these two terms as if they are synonymous. Would he say that 95% of all autistic people are quarrelsome?

Additionally, Carter doesn’t seem to grasp the meaning of “mind-blindness,” the inability to see from a different perspective. It has nothing to do with “believing in” other minds, as Carter suggests.

Finally, Carter doesn’t appear to know anything about Asperger’s Syndrome, other than as a clinical description of a condition that has some unpleasant characteristics. If he doesn’t want to take the time to be informed about autism spectrum disorders, he shouldn’t speculate about what types of people are more likely to have them.

FWIW, although I’ve never been diagnosed, I have all the symptoms of Asperger’s, and I scored a 39 on the Wired test.

By: Henry Neufeld

Henry Neufeld — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:47:05 +0000

I hope more people will comment, because I think Joe Carter’s experience is atypical. Either he’s meeting a very odd group of people, or he’s interpreting them very oddly.

By: Kievas Fargo

Kievas Fargo — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:58:35 +0000

Most of the atheists I know are neither quarrelsome nor socially challenged.