Apatheism
Apatheism (a portmanteau of atheism and apathy), also known as pragmatic or practical atheism, is a subset of atheism (when atheism is defined as lack of belief in deities, rather than specific disbelief in deities). An apatheist is someone who is not interested in accepting or denying any claims that God, or any other supernatural being, exists or does not exist. In other words, an apatheist is someone who considers the question of the existence of God as neither meaningful nor relevant to human affairs.
The eighteenth century French philosopher Denis Diderot, when accused of being an atheist, replied that he simply did not care whether God existed or not. In response to Voltaire, he wrote,
- It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley; but not at all so to believe or not in God.[1]
Later, Karl Marx would dismiss God as irrelevant. For Marx, since there is no meaning, value or purpose outside the historical process, both belief in God and the negation of God (i.e., atheism) were a waste of time.[2] George Jacob Holyoake, the English Owenite lecturer — who coined the term secularism — held that secularists should not be militant freethinkers but should instead take no interest at all in religious questions because they were irrelevant.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ Herrick, Jim (1985). Against the Faith. London: Glover & Blair. pp. p. 75. ISBN 0-906681-09-X.
{{cite book}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - ^ Karl Marx on the irrelevance of atheism
External links
- Apatheism, Allognosticism, and the American Religious Landscape.
- The Church of Apatheism, a web page first published in August 2000 which also uses the terms “apatheism” and “apatheist”
- Apatheism defined on Atheism.about.com
- "Let It Be: Three Cheers for Apatheism" by Jonathan Rauch