INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND INNOVATION CONGRESS -II
PROBLEMS OF CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION: THE EXAMPLE OF APATHEISM
In terms of the history of thought, the Enlightenment philosophy offers important arguments for the approaches for alternatives to the theistic religions' understanding and acceptance of God. Understandings such as agnosticism, positivism, atheism, materialism, especially deism, can be counted among the examples of these alternative approaches. Under the influence of these movements and understandings, we can also talk about movements of scepticism and reaction against traditional religions and conceptions of God. Therefore, today, compared to the past, the theistic conceptions of religion and God are losing importance. However, although people who are not interested in religion and God, who do not care about them, and who are indifferent to these issues are frequently mentioned today, it is possible to talk about the reality that the generality of people still have a conception of God, no matter how different. One of these conceptions of God is apatheism. Although apathy towards religion and God has been on the agenda since ancient times, apatheism is among the actional issues of today's philosophy of religion.In our study, after establishing the general framework of apatheism, it is aimed to describe the conceptions of atheism and agnosticism and to compare the common and different aspects of these conceptions. Although apatheism, which can be defined as indifference to God, is generally discussed as a type of atheism, it is different from atheism itself or a type of atheism because it has its own characteristics. On the other hand, it is claimed that apatheism is similar to agnosticism in the ontological and epistemic context. However, in agnosticism, God's existence or non-existence cannot be known, whereas in apatheism, there is an indifference and apathy towards God rather than an ontological and epistemic questioning or belief in God's existence or nonexistence.