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Apatheism (; a portmanteau of apathy and theism) is the attitude of apathy toward the existence or non-existence of God(s). It is more of an attitude rather than a belief, claim, or belief system. The term was coined by Canadian Sociology Stuart Johnson..
An apatheist is someone who is not interested in accepting or rejecting any claims that gods do exist or do not exist. The existence of a god or gods is not rejected, but may be designated irrelevant. One of the first recorded apatheists was arguably Denis Diderot (1713–1784), who wrote: "It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley; but not at all so to believe or not in God."
Philosopher Trevor Hedberg has called apatheism "uncharted territory in the philosophy of religion". Political theorist and constitutional law scholar Adam Scott Kunz has further defined apatheism as "the philosophical attitude of indifference, both public and private, to (1) the question of the existence of a deity, (2) the Metaphysics and practical value of loyalty to that deity, and/or (3) the interaction of that deity with the natural world".
Adam Scott Kunz has argued that apatheism's opposite is zeal, just as atheism's opposite is theism. Instead of viewing apatheism as a different form of belief, Kunz argues that apatheism and zeal can interact with atheism and theism on a two-dimensional spectrum similar to a political spectrum. A person can be a theist, while at the same time have an attitude of apatheism (such beliefs are common in deism) or zeal toward questions of existence, loyalty, or involvement of deity. Likewise, an atheist can be either apatheistic or zealous.
Neil Macdonald of CBC News defines the apatheist as "someone who has absolutely no interest in the question of a god's (or gods') existence, and is just as uninterested in telling anyone else what to believe".
Apatheists may feel that even if there are gods/deities and the existence and legitimacy of them were proven, it would not make a difference to them for one reason or another; therefore, which one(s), if any, are real does not matter and any discussion about it is meaningless. This approach is similar to that of practical atheism. An apatheist may also simply have no interest in the god debate simply for lack of interest in the topic. Another apatheistic argument states that morals do not come from god and that if a god exists, there would be no changes with regards to morality; therefore, a god's existence or non-existence is irrelevant.
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