apatheism

n. the attitude of not caring about religion or whether there is a God. Subjects: English, Religion

Etymological Note: apa(th)y + -theism

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Citations: [1990 [Greg Garland] Usenet: alt.angst (Oct. 4) “Re: apathy”: Angu-apatheism—not caring whether or not there is a God, but still wondering what you did that has Him so pissed off at you. ] 1991 [Steve Reiser] Usenet: alt.atheism (Sept. 11) “Apatheism”: I can’t remember if was a post or e-mail, but one of the more interesting **-theisms I’ve seen is “apatheism.” An apatheist would be: one who couldn’t cares less whether there is a god or not, because its totally irrelevant to our existence here anyway. 2003 Jonathan Rauch Atlantic (May 1) “Let It Be”: Apatheism—a disinclination to care all that much about one’s own religion, and an even stronger disinclination to care about other people’s—may or may not be something new in the world, but its modern flowering, particularly in ostensibly pious America, is worth getting excited about. 2007 [dgriffith] Freakonomics Blog (Aug. 2) “Cut God Some Slack”: I think you’ll find that the stance of simply not caring much about God or religion (“apatheism” in the jokey parlance) is much less common than you imagine. It seems to be growing as people get wealthier, but a depressingly predominate chunk of humanity believes that God is indeed worth caring about, one way or another.

Posted 2 Aug 07 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

You cite an etymological Note: apa(th)y + -theism.

I submit that a equally valid origin might be ap + atheism.

by Bruce Robinson 23 Aug 08, 0138 GMT