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{{Distinguish|Atheism}}{{short description|Absence of espoused belief in a God or gods}}{{Irreligion Sidebar|expanded=nontheism}}Nontheism or non-theism is a range of both religiousJOURNAL, 10.2307/1384088, Williams, J. Paul, Horace L. Friess, Horace L. Friess, The Nature of Religion, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1962, 2, 1, 3–17, Blackwell Publishing, 1384088, and non-religiousWEB, Starobin, Paul, The Godless Rise As A Political Force,www.lexisnexis.com/uk/nexis/docview/getDocForCuiReq?lni=7V5R-2GB0-YBW6-F3TT&csi=8022&oc=00240&perma=true, The National Journal, 29 July 2010, 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 gods and differs from atheism, or active disbelief in any gods. 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 (strong or positive, implicit or explicit), and apatheism. It is in use in the fields of Christian apologetics and general liberal theology.An early usage of the hyphenated term non-theism is attributed to 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 noncognitivists who consider all discussion of God to be meaningless.JOURNAL, Anthony, Kenny, Anthony Kenny, 2006, Worshipping an Unknown God, Ratio, 19, 4, 442, 10.1111/j.1467-9329.2006.00339.x, Some agnostics, however, are not nontheists but rather agnostic theists.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=FI7ZAAAAMAAJ&q=agnostic+theist, Atheism: The Case Against God, George H, Smith, George H. Smith, 10–11, 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., 1979, Prometheus Books, 9780879751241, 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.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}}An early usage of the hyphenated non-theism is by George Holyoake in 1852,“The Reasoner”, New Series, No. VIII. 115 who introduces it because:This passage is cited by 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.“BOOK, Cox, Harvey, Harvey Cox, Secular City,archive.org/details/secularcitydebat00call, registration, 1966, 225, New York, Macmillan, 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 naturalistic, including atheism, pantheism, deism, and agnosticism.“BOOK, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, 1998, Naturalism, 252, Pema Chödrön uses the term in the context of Buddhism:}}

Nontheistic religions

Nontheistic traditions of thought have played roles in Buddhism,B. Alan Wallace, Contemplative Science. Columbia University Press, 2007, pages 97-98. Christianity,Spong, John Shelby, A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith Is Dying and How a New Faith Is Being Born, {{ISBN|0-06-067063-0}}Tillich, Paul. (1951) Systematic Theology, p.205. Hinduism,Catherine Robinson, Interpretations of the Bhagavad-Gītā and Images of the Hindu Tradition: The Song of the Lord. Routledge Press, 1992, page 51. Jainism, Taoism, Creativity, Dudeism, Raëlism,MAGAZINE,www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,404175,00.html,www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,404175,00.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20030110094642www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,404175,00.html,">web.archive.org/web/20030110094642www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,404175,00.html, dead, January 10, 2003, Time, Anne, Berryman, Who Are the Raelians?, 4 January 2003, Humanistic Judaism,WEB, SHJ Philosophy,www.shj.org/mission.htm, Society for Humanistic Judaism, 18 August 2013, dead,www.shj.org/mission.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20130813073051www.shj.org/mission.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20130813073051www.shj.org/mission.htm, 13 August 2013, Laveyan Satanism, The Satanic Temple,WEB,apnews.com/6addf2f0ecb646919cb1cfcfdacfc6c1, Satanic Temple: IRS has designated it a tax-exempt church, 2019-04-25, AP NEWS, 2019-07-30, Unitarian Universalism,WEB, Humanism: Theological Diversity in Unitarian Universalism,www.uua.org/beliefs/welcome/humanism/index.shtml, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, 18 August 2013, WEB, Atheism and Agnosticism: Part of the Theological Diversity Within Unitarian Universalism,www.uua.org/beliefs/welcome/atheism/index.shtml, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, 18 August 2013, and Ethical culture.WEB, American Ethical Union,aeu.org/, 18 August 2013,

See also

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• Apatheism
• Conceptions of God
• Ethical culture
• Falsifiability
• Freethought
• God in Jainism
• Ietsism
• Jainism and non-creationism
• Language, Truth, and Logic
• Mu (negative)
• Naturalistic pantheism
• Nontheist Quakers
• Nondualism
• Secular humanism
• Transcendentalism
• Transtheism
• Satanism (TST)

{{div col end}}

References

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External links

• nontheism.org/" title="web.archive.org/web/20090424040148nontheism.org/">Nontheism.org

{{Theism}}{{Religion topics}}{{Irreligion}}{{Philosophy of religion}}{{Theology}}