Nontheism or non-theism is a range of both religious and nonreligious attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in the existence of god or gods. Nontheism has generally been used to describe apathy or silence towards the subject of God and differs from atheism. Nontheism does not necessarily describe atheism or disbelief in God; it has been used as an umbrella term for summarizing various distinct and even mutually exclusive positions, such as agnosticism, ignosticism, ietsism, skepticism, pantheism, pandeism, transtheism, atheism, negative and positive atheism, strong or positive atheism, implicit and explicit atheism, implicit atheism, and apatheism. It is in use in the fields of Christian apologetics and general liberal theology. An early usage of the hyphenated ''non-theism'' was by George Holyoake in 1852. Within the scope of nontheistic agnosticism, philosopher Anthony Kenny distinguishes between agnostics who find the claim "God exists" uncertain and Theological noncognitivism, theological noncognitivists who consider all discussion of God to be meaningless. Some agnostics, however, are not nontheists but rather agnostic theism, agnostic theists. Other related philosophical opinions about the existence of deities are ignosticism and skepticism. Because of the various definitions of the term ''God'', a person could be an atheist in terms of certain conceptions of gods, while remaining agnostic in terms of others.

Origin and definition

The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (2007) does not have an entry for ''nontheism'' or ''non-theism'', but it does have an entry for ''non-theist'', defined as "A person who is not a theist", and an entry for the adjectival ''non-theistic''. An early usage of the hyphenated ''non-theism'' is by George Holyoake in 1852, who introduces it because: This passage is cited by James Buchanan (minister), James Buchanan in his 1857 ''Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws'', who however goes on to state: Spelling without hyphen sees scattered use in the later 20th century, following Harvey Cox's 1966 ''Secular City'': "Thus the hidden God or deus absconditus of biblical theology may be mistaken for the no-god-at-all of nontheism." Usage increased in the 1990s in contexts where association with the terms ''atheism'' or ''antitheism'' was unwanted. The 1998 ''Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics'' states, "In the strict sense, all forms of nontheisms are Naturalism (philosophy), naturalistic, including atheism, pantheism, deism, and agnosticism." Pema Chödrön uses the term in the context of Buddhism:

Nontheistic religions

Nontheistic traditions of thought have played roles in Nontheistic religions#Buddhism, Buddhism, Nontheistic religions#Christianity, Christianity, Nontheistic religions#Hinduism, Hinduism,Catherine Robinson, ''Interpretations of the Bhagavad-Gītā and Images of the Hindu Tradition: The Song of the Lord.'' Routledge Press, 1992, page 51. History of atheism#Jainism, Jainism, Taoism, Creativity (religion), Creativity, Dudeism, Raëlism, Humanistic Judaism, Satanism#Rationalistic Satanism, Laveyan Satanism, The Satanic Temple, Unitarian Universalism, and Ethical culture.

References

External links

*
Nontheism.org
{{Theology Nontheism, Irreligion

Origin and definition

Nontheistic religions

See also

References

External links