I realized that the increase in the rate of Asperger's/autism was not just of more children being on the spectrum, but of fewer children being neurotypical, because of later childbearing, and perhaps other factors.
Mid-Twentieth Century, there was a compression of active childbearing years into the maternal age range of 20 to 30 years.
Which probably suppressed the rate of autism for a while, but then there was a shift toward older parents. I believe a correlation has been shown between paternal age and Asperger's.
So now we have not just a low birthrate, but also not nearly as many children being born to parents in their twenties, and also more children being born to parents in their forties than there were a few decades before.
One more factor: associative mating, which may concentrate Asperger-ish genes so that the next generation is even further along the spectrum than their parents were.
This is playing out in our society all over the place. Many trans people are on the spectrum. Many others on the spectrum are on the far right. A lot of propaganda is targeted at each side, attempting to convert and weaponize them.
God's word on this seems to be Psalm 119.
This song is haunting, although not directly applicable to my personal experience.
There's an interesting semi-parallel in Revelation 7:17 and 8:1:
"...and God shall wipe all tears from their eyes. And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour."
Some years back there were some public comments from famous authors about the Susan in the Narnia books not being present for the Final Battle and what followed. It was framed as bigotry against women and people of average morals.
Neil Gaiman's came in the form of a short story, "The Problem of Susan," which from an excerpt I found is apparently quite vile.
Gaiman has fallen out of public favor as allegations against him have begun to surface.
Two other authors were J. K. Rowling, who ought to know better, and Phillip Pullman, who also writes vile stories, I've been told.
Pastor Douglas Wilson has a lucid, sensitive, and rather long rebuttal to the Problem of Susan; link below.
My own, lesser contribution here, is that C. S. Lewis was a fan of George MacDonald, and MacDonald wrote some vivid portrayals of spiritual devolution. In The Princess and Curdie, Curdie was given the ability to discern which beast a person's moral character was descending into by holding their hand. In ...
