Nontheism covers a range of both religious and nonreligious attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in a
personal god or
gods. The term nontheism is generally used to describe apathy or a noncomment toward the subject of God and differentiates from an antithetical, explicit, atheism. Nontheism does not necessarily describe atheism or disbelief in God. It has been used as an
umbrella term for summarizing various distinct and even mutually exclusive positions, such as
agnosticism,
ignosticism,
ietsism,
skepticism,
pantheism and
atheism. It is in use in the fields of
Christian apologetics and general
liberal theology.
