Those who routinely read my blog will know that I often write on topics having to do with the reasonableness of faith. In other words, I like to explain why having a belief in the existence of God is rational. However, there are some who are simply unimpressed. It’s not that they don’t follow or appreciate logic, it’s just that they don’t feel that faith is relevant to their lives. Concerning matters of religion, they are apathetic. It just doesn’t interest them.
Claiming that religion is irrelevant in your life is not necessarily a good or bad thing. It’s just a statement of fact concerning how one feels. Many good and honest people do not find faith relevant to them. These people may lead productive lives, remain faithful to their spouses, and raise children with admirable values. They do all of this without finding faith relevant. Harboring an apathy for faith doesn’t even mean that they are hostile toward faith, or people of faith. It just means they haven’t found it relevant.
Offering logical reasons to believe to apathetically-religious people is generally not very productive. This is likely due to the fact that their reasons are not pragmatically based. Although I could not list all of the reasons why people have become indifferent to religious themes, my experience suggests that they all fall into two general categories: External Lack of Need, and Internal Lack of Need.
External: Indifferent people whom I have encountered have indicated that their needs are met without religious faith. They have food, shelter, and plans for the future, without having developed a need for religion. As well, they do not connect physical health with a need for an understanding of God. The external components of their life have not generated a need for faith.
Internal: Religiously apathetic people may also sense no subjective, spiritual need to connect with a higher or greater power. Furthermore, they do not feel the need to seek relief from guilt over wrongs they’ve done, or people that they’ve hurt.
I also suspect that in some cases a person who claims to be religiously indifferent is in reality not apathetic at all. Perhaps they have been jaded by a religious “jerk” and have chosen apathy over faith as a way of response. Deep down inside, they actually do care and wonder about faith.
Because the reasons for indifference are subjectively personal, and rely on the way one feels, I believe that they can easily and quickly change. For example, one might very suddenly fall on hard economic times and subsequently begin to wonder if faith might change the way they feel towards their situation. As well, a strong sense of guilt may unexpectedly rise to the surface in a person’s life and cause them to desire a remedy for it. These causes may not necessarily make a person religious, but it may affect their interest in matters of faith.
In any event, I believe something often occurs that opens the door for their indifference to be reconsidered. Perhaps that door is even an article like this one? Perhaps by simply reading about religious indifference a person like yourself is caused to begin to reconsider your own faith?
I love an open door.
peace,
dane
Dane Cramer is a Christian blogger, backpacker, amateur filmmaker, volunteer jail chaplain and author of two books: Romancing the Trail and The Nephilim: A Monster Among Us.