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Apatheism - Another Point of View

Apatheism - Another Point of View: Encyclopedia II - Apatheism - Another Point of View

A different source for Apatheism is given at this web site, Apatheism, Allognosticism, and the American Religious Landscape. Combining apathy with theism is more in line with the way Rauch uses the neologism. Early on he characterize himself, an atheist, as also being an apatheist. Later in Let It Be he writes, "And agnostics? True, most of them are apatheists, but most apatheists are not agnostics. Because -- and this is an essential point -- many apatheists are believers." Paraphrasing Mr. Rauch, this also support his statement that Apat ...

Apatheism: Encyclopedia II - Apatheism - Another Point of View

Apatheism - Another Point of View

A different source for Apatheism is given at this web site, Apatheism, Allognosticism, and the American Religious Landscape. Combining apathy with theism is more in line with the way Rauch uses the neologism. Early on he characterize himself, an atheist, as also being an apatheist. Later in Let It Be he writes, "And agnostics? True, most of them are apatheists, but most apatheists are not agnostics. Because -- and this is an essential point -- many apatheists are believers." Paraphrasing Mr. Rauch, this also support his statement that Apatheism is not about what you believe, but about how.

A longer quote from "Let it be", which supports and extends the above definition:

To be in the grip of religious zeal is the natural state of human beings, or at least of a great many human beings; that is how much of the species seems to be wired. Apatheism, therefore, should not be assumed to represent a lazy recumbency, like my collapse into a soft chair after a long day. Just the opposite, it is the product of a determined effort to discipline the religious mind set, and often of an equally determined personal effort to master the spiritual passions. It is not a lapse. It is an achievement.

This points to Apatheism being more than apathetic. In order to maintain the dynamic stand of an apatheist, Rauch says we are controlling our normally zealous nature. A less ambiguious way to describe his stand might be assertive - theism. However this does not roll off the tongue like Apatheism.