Hong Kong Liberal Religious Forum

Non-theism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontheism


Ursula Goodenough, author of the international best-seller "The Sacred Depth of Nature," explained, in the UURN (Unitarian Universalist Religious Naturalists) mailing list, Non-theism very well:


[UURN] Non-theism
Ursula Goodenough
Jul 24, 2009

There's another term out there that some of us use, which is to
self-describe as non-theistic (which I did in Sacred Depths of Nature).

As with all terms there are (confusing) nuances of meaning here with
different users, but that shouldn't kill it!

I distinguish non-theistic from agnostic (its close relative) in the
following way. To me, agnostic suggests...
that one has concluded that there's no satisfactory evidence for either
belief -- theism or atheism -- so one adopts a non-belief position on this
axis.

Non-theistic, for me, indicates that I am not at all focused on the
question, have a rich religious life without having a god concept in it,
don't feel any need to believe or not believe or suggest, as I hear in
agnostic, that I'm somehow waiting for evidence that might influence my
belief/non-belief ratio. Obviously if science-based evidence ever
materializes on this axis then I'll be all ears (we all will!), but
meanwhile, god-talk -- even naturalistic god-talk -- just doesn't add
anything to my religious framework.