Sunday, April 27, 2014

Aniarism

I recently saw a post which described an attitude toward religion that I have felt but not articulated before.
The sentiment is basically that it plays no significant role in my life - certainly not enough to bother associating myself with the various labels that exist. I realise that many people in our society, and definitely in less sophisticated cultures define themselves according to their religion but this is often not the case amongst within the WEIRD cultures. Even those who attend church regularly can scarcely be called devout. In many cases religion is something one does on the weekend and it barely touches everyday life.
I reject the term atheist because it implies a deliberately negative stance on the existence of a God. In the past I have considered myself agnostic with tendencies toward atheism. The point of view being that I would be quite disappointed if I found that a supreme being created the universe and has a hand in everything that happens. As an answer it closes down so many interesting questions in a very unsatisfying way.
Recently however, I have realised that even this was a Friday night philosophy belief and, in truth, I didn't really see how it mattered in any meaningful way.

But, to the point of this post, what is the correct term for this attitude? Traditionally atheism or agnosticism would be the only options. In keeping with the Greek roots of those words I suggest "Aniarism" from the word aniaros = uninteresting.
I have no idea if anyone else has already come up with something similar. And really I don't care.

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