Believing Religiously wrt Autism

The vaccine debate has always fascinated me, mainly because the debate is so polarizing that people on both sides of the debate believe religiously, zealously and fanatically that vaccines do or do not cause autism.

I have seen people who believe that there is no genetic connection to autism - it is all environmental even though: The identical twin studies show otherwise; Autism runs in families like mine; Certain genes have been tied to the prevalence of autism.

I have seen people who believe that there is no way autism and vaccines can be linked even though: All of the studies have been done statistically; Not one of the statistical studies has taken a measure of the control group, i.e., the people who have not been vaccinated; The only measure of the control group occurred before vaccines and that showed a much lower rate.

I have seen people who believe that there is no autism epidemic even though: The CDC says there is; The Ethiopians in Minnesota who suffered the autism epidemic when they came to the US had previously had no word for autism; The California school statistics says that there is; No autism epidemic would say that in families with autism, not only our sons and daughters would have autism but our brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles would also have autism.

The autism-vaccine debate has become so polarized that it is more a matter of faith, not a dispassionate observation. This does not bode well for our children.