Nontheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nontheism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with atheism.
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Nontheism covers a range of both religious[1] and nonreligious[2] attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in a personal god or gods. The term nontheism is generally used to describe apathy or a noncomment toward the subject of God and differentiates from an antithetical, explicit, 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 asagnosticism, ignosticism,ietsism, skepticism,pantheism and atheism. It is in use in the fields of Christian apologetics and general liberal theology.
Nontheism can be expressed in a variety of ways. Strong or positive atheism is the positive belief that a god does not exist. Someone who does not think about the existence of a deity may be termed a weak or negative atheist, or more specifically implicitly atheist. Other, more qualified subtypes of nontheism are often known as agnosticism:strong or positive agnosticism is the belief that it is impossible for humans to know whether or not any deities exist.
It is a more precise opinion than weak or negative agnosticism, which is the belief that the existence or nonexistence of any deities is unknown but not necessarily unknowable. 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.[3] Some agnostics, however, are not nontheists but rather agnostic theists.[4]
It is a more precise opinion than weak or negative agnosticism, which is the belief that the existence or nonexistence of any deities is unknown but not necessarily unknowable. 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.[3] Some agnostics, however, are not nontheists but rather agnostic theists.[4]
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[edit]
The Oxford English Dictionary (2007) does not have an entry fornontheism 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]
An early usage of the hyphenated non-theism is by George Holyoake in 1852,[5] 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 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 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."[8]
Pema Chödrön uses the term in the context of Buddhism:
Nontheistic religions[edit]
Main article: Nontheistic religions
Nontheistic traditions of thought have played roles[1] in
Buddhism,[10]Christianity,[11][12]
Hinduism,[13] Jainism,
Daoism, Dudeism,Raëlism[14][15]
Humanistic Judaism,[16]
Unitarian Universalism,[17][18] and
Ethical Culture.[19]
Buddhism,[10]Christianity,[11][12]
Hinduism,[13] Jainism,
Daoism, Dudeism,Raëlism[14][15]
Humanistic Judaism,[16]
Unitarian Universalism,[17][18] and
Ethical Culture.[19]
See also
- Apatheism
- Conceptions of God
- Deconstruction and religion
- Ethical Culture
- Falsifiability
- Freethought
- God in Jainism
- Ietsism
- Jainism and non-creationism
- Language, Truth, and Logic
- Mu (negative)
- Naturalistic pantheism
- Nontheist Friend
- Nondualism
- Secular humanism
- Transcendentalism
- Transtheism
I do not want to be called an atheist because of the “fundamentism” of many atheists. I reject their dogmatic position in the same manner as I reject organized religion. It seems to me that what is called god or gods is a projection of our own being. Carl Jung provides, for me, the best understanding of the nature of god:
“Experiences of the self possess a numinosity characteristic of religious revelations. Hence Jung believed there was no essential difference between the self as an experiential, psychological reality and the traditional concept of a supreme deity.
To the best of my knowledge you never called me an atheist. The point that I want to make is, that many people who lose their faith, or never had it in the first place feel they must, by default, be atheist or agnostic. I wish merely to point out that there is a lesser known alternative. And your definition of nontheist does indeed need to be, as you acknowledge later, considered in light of the term “believe.” That is the troubling term. My somewhat simple analogy is unicorns. Do unicorns exist(that other troubling term)? In one sense they do. I can Google the term unicorn and find 17,700,000 links. I can find books about unicorns, I find pictures of unicorns. The issue for me is not whether I “beieve” in unicorns, but, rather, can I find a correlation in the physical world. And, the same is true for god.
Kind regards,
JF
So I try and look for the church that could understand and accept the way I feel.
I’ve been theoretically Presbyterian for the last twenty years. Practically too, because there’re so few Protestants in France that attending a Presbyterian service is the best available way to live according to the kind of “faith” I’ve described.
I’ve been meeting French Unitarians too, from time to time. You’ve got the Christian ones and the non-Christian ones. The first ones don’t understand me because I don’t want to be considered a Christian anymore, neither do the latter because I’m not fond of neo-paganism (to put it euphemistically!). I don’t like walking around naked by equinoctial night in a deep forest with a flaming torch in my hand!
So, in the last time, I’ve been contemplating getting to the Friends’ Meeting in Paris, France. I’ve gotten in contact with them. I just wonder whether they will accept me as I am. But I’m glad to hear about American Quakers who are in the same mood as me.
“Faith-fully” yours.
Fabrice
Most likely, they will in my experience — especially so if they are programmed Friends. I have also know programmed Friends who are equally accepting.
I am an atheist Friend who was seriously questioning the integrity of continuing my formal association with Friends when I stumbled across a book entitled, Godless for God’s Sake – Nontheism in Contemporary Quakerism by David Boulton.
My best regards to you,
Bob
Oceanically yours
Fabrice
nor fundamentailitic concept like “god”
some biology goes to wheather one belives or
dosn’t belive (a study in minnisotta showed this)
so the opposite genes of reality and no -god are
also exist.
One must not get tied up in knotts about the
religisoty people
those that are against materialism and facts
find freedom in albert ellis book
the case against religiosity and this relates that
the sane kind of person dosn’t practice religion.
but there are subtitutes about there
for closer reality the nature poems
of japanese hiqu
then for ethics the 14 teachable virtues
and for examples such as no slavery and other ethics
aseops fables.
and aristotle
nomoekan ethics.
you have ayn rand virtue of selfishness.
and [ kung fucius –anelects…who is into
harmony of nature no mention of god]
john locke -essay concerning
human understanding..
with this possilbly a virtual reality
of what an atheist government would be
in its ethics
unlike the usa constitution
but a capitalist -atheist one …
where persons would be co-operative
that is openly able to be trusting
and continueing on in the free market
unlike the market shut down we seem to be heading to.
no more domestic disputes
better psychology
no chistain polution
more learning and no-put down indoctrination
forced into class rooms.
a lot closer to utopia.
thanks kindly,
RicH-w
This will be the main problem concerning atheists (materialists, humanists, all non theists generally speaking) and their relation with the rest of humanity in the future centuries.
Waldorf schools and such humanistic scholar approach are already acting in some countries (nearly a housand waldorf schools around the world); but the challenge is to convey our reason in state funded school establishments.