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The Row Boat"Had we but world enough, and time..." *
Finally Apatheism5/23/2007 09:49:51I just came across this silly article from The Atlantic in 2003 by Jonathan Rauch (of gay marriage fame, also wrote a series of extraordinary articles on Schelling simulations) about "apatheism." Finally. For so much of my life, particularly among the friends I grew up with, this was the Eden. It was not religion, or even atheism or irreligion, because it had no need for the reference. I simply didn't understand why it mattered whether God existed or not, or even who would bother to wonder. It seemed absurd to need a God to explain any peculiarity of the world, and not because I believed everything was explainable or explained. What remained, rather, simply remained. Rach writes: "Atheist," I was about to say, but I stopped myself. "I used to call myself an atheist," I said, "and I still don't believe in God, but the larger truth is that it has been years since I really cared one way or another. I'm" -- that was when it hit me -- "an ... apatheist!" Apatheists are "people who feel at ease with religion even if they are irreligious; people who may themselves be members of religious communities, but who are neither controlled by godly passions nor concerned about the (nonviolent, noncoercive) religious beliefs of others." It seems to me that this is a very common circumstance that needs a name. Believers need to realize this when they flatter themselves by talking about the rest as lost and aimless and searching. Or that their tepidness is an attack on faith. It might not be at all, just simple indifference. Scholars of religion have to keep in mind the phenomenon of apatheism as well. When one spends all day thinking about religion and very little else, it is really important to remember that even though you claim religion is this universal human meaning and world making work, a lot of people just don't care about it that much. Of course, the logic of Augustine and Luther could be used as well against modern apatheism as in the day they first spoke it: not caring about religion is precisely a symptom of the fallen condition, end of story. A broader question: is it possible to not care about the meaning of one's life? Heidegger phrased it much better, if vaguer. We don't look for the meaning of life, but we go about working out our being. |
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