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Nontheism ornon-theism is a range of bothreligious[1] andnon-religious[2] attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in theexistence of God orgods. Nontheism has generally been used to describe apathy or silence towards the subject of gods and differs fromatheism, or active disbelief in any gods. It has been used as anumbrella term for summarizing various distinct and even mutually exclusive positions, such as atheism,agnosticism,apatheism,egotheism,ignosticism,ietsism,pantheism,pandeism,skepticism, andtranstheism. It is in use in the fields ofChristian apologetics and generalliberal theology.
An early usage of the hyphenated termnon-theism is attributed toGeorge Holyoake in 1852. Within the scope of nontheistic agnosticism, philosopherAnthony Kenny distinguishes between agnostics who find the claim "God exists" uncertain andtheological noncognitivists who consider all discussion of God to be meaningless.[3] Some agnostics, however, are not nontheists but ratheragnostic theists.[4] Other related philosophical opinions about the existence of deities are ignosticism and skepticism. Because of the various definitions of the termGod, a person could be an atheist in terms of certainconceptions of gods, while remaining agnostic in terms of others.
TheOxford English Dictionary (2007) does not have an entry fornontheism ornon-theism, but it does have an entry fornon-theist, defined as "A person who is not a theist", and an entry for the adjectivalnon-theistic.[citation needed]
An early usage of the hyphenatednon-theism is byGeorge Holyoake in 1852,[5] who introduces it because:
Mr. [Charles] Southwell has taken an objection to the term Atheism. We are glad he has. We have disused it a long time [...]. We disuse it, because Atheist is a worn-out word. Both the ancients and the moderns have understood by itone without God, and also without morality. Thus the term connotes more than any well-informed and earnest person accepting it ever included in it; that is, the word carries with it associations of immorality, which have been repudiated by the Atheist as seriously as by the Christian. Non-theism is a term less open to the same misunderstanding, as it implies the simple non-acceptance of the Theist's explanation of the origin and government of the world.
This passage is cited byJames Buchanan in his 1857Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws, who however goes on to state:
"Non-theism" was afterwards exchanged [by Holyoake] for "Secularism", as a term less liable to misconstruction, and more correctly descriptive of the real import of the theory.[6]
Spelling without hyphen sees scattered use in the later 20th century, followingHarvey Cox's 1966Secular City: "Thus the hidden God ordeus absconditus of biblical theology may be mistaken for the no-god-at-all of nontheism."[7] Usage increased in the 1990s in contexts where association with the termsatheism orantitheism was unwanted. The 1998Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics states, "In the strict sense, all forms of nontheisms arenaturalistic, including atheism,pantheism,deism, and agnosticism."[8]
Pema Chödrön uses the term in the context ofBuddhism:
The difference between theism and nontheism is not whether one does or does not believe in God.[...] Theism is a deep-seated conviction that there's some hand to hold [...] Non-theism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves [...] Nontheism is finally realizing there is no babysitter you can count on.[9]
Nontheistic traditions of thought have played roles[1] inBuddhism,[10]Christianity,[11][12]Nontheist Quakers,Humanistic Judaism,[13]Hinduism,[14]Jainism,Taoism,Creativity,Dudeism,Raëlism,[15]Ethical movement,[16]Unitarian Universalism,[17][18] andSatanism (LaVeyan Satanism,The Satanic Temple).[19]
Properly considered, agnosticism is not a third alternative to theism and atheism because it is concerned with a different aspect of religious belief. Theism and atheism refer to the presence or absence of belief in a god; agnosticism refers to the impossibility of knowledge with regard to a god or supernatural being. The term "agnostic" does not, in itself, indicate whether or not one believes in a god. Agnosticism can be either theistic or atheistic.
Media related toNontheism at Wikimedia Commons| Conceptions of God |
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