Autism being the name for the way a condition looks and behaves, not its cause, creates numerous communication problems and misunderstandings.
First, when discussing the condition, it is often not said that any given discussion is in a context of their being several causes. This creates miscommunications. Language tends to make fundamentalists of users when one word is all we have for several things. Autism is a pluralist’s condition.
Second, in those cases where environmental effects contribute to its manifestation, there may be several different environmental effects. A relatively obscure possible cause, such as vaccines, may be a cause in relatively rare situations. It’s difficult to rule causes out when you don’t know the etiology. This is particularly true with a multi-cause condition. This ambiguity polarizes proponents of particular theories.
I guess a question I have is, which particular hypothesized causes of autism influence a mother’s uterine testosterone and estrogen levels, or the hormone levels of the young children that shows symptoms?
