{{short description|Belief about religion or philosophy}} '''Indifferentism''' is the belief that no one religion or philosophy is superior to another.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indifferentism |title=Indifferentism - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-webster.com |date=2012-08-31 |access-date=2013-08-01}}</ref>
Political indifferentism describes the policy of a state that treats all the religions within its borders as being on an equal footing before the law of the country.<ref name=":0" />
'''Religious indifferentism''' is the belief that all religions are equally valid.<ref>{{Cite web |title=indifferentism |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/indifferentism |website=Collins Dictionary}}</ref> However, in Catholic usage, religious indifference is a term for "deny[ing] that it is the duty of man to worship God by believing and practicing the one true religion".<ref name=":0" />
==Philosophical positions== Immanuel Kant argues that absolute indifferentism represents an extreme form of skepticism, which argues that there is no rational ground for accepting any philosophical position.<ref>Rees, D.A., "Kant, Bayle and Indifferentism", ''The Philosophical Review'', 63(4) {{doi|10.2307/2182293}}</ref>
== Catholic Church == {{Roman Catholicism}} ===Catholic teachings on indifferentism=== According to the Catholic Church, absolute indifferentism results in a willingness to concede any position.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Religious Indifferentism |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07759a.htm |access-date=2023-10-28 |website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref>
===Restricted indifferentism=== Catholicism also opposes as "indifferentism" a spectrum of pragmatic ideas that admit the necessity of religion because of its positive influence on human life, but which hold that all religions are equally true. A classic advocate of this theory is Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who maintains, in his ''Emile'', that God looks only to the sincerity of intention, and that everybody can serve him by remaining in the religion in which they were raised, or by converting to any other that pleases them more (Emile, III). This position is sometimes held by agnostics, on the grounds that it is impossible to attain certain religious knowledge, and that a God who has allowed such uncertainty will be pleased with whatever sincere form of worship he is offered.<ref name=":0" />
From a Roman Catholic perspective, to say that all these irreconcilable beliefs are equally pleasing to God is to say that God has no preference for truth and to deny reason. The Roman Catholic Church argues that restricted indifferentism is no different from absolute indifferentism because while nominally acknowledging the utility of religion, to affirm that "all religions are equally good" ultimately means that religion is good for nothing.<ref name=":0" />
===Liberal or latitudinarian indifferentism=== The Catholic Church also resists as indifferentism the belief that, since Christianity is the true religion, it makes no difference which of the several Christian denominations a person joins. Catholicism criticizes Protestantism specifically for this sort of limited indifferentism, describing many Protestant denominations as latitudinarians who do not claim any particular fidelity to the gospel and who maintain that all forms of worship may be equally effective for the purpose of building a closer union with God.<ref name=":0" />
Since the Second Vatican Council the Catholic Church has adopted a more committed approach towards ecumenism, but the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity has warned against the danger of doctrinal indifferentism within ecumenical dialogue.<ref>Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, [https://www.odwphiladelphia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/1993Directory-Application-of-Principles-Norms-of-Ecumenism.pdf Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism], paragraph 6, available via the Office of Divine Worship of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, published 25 March 1993, accessed 17 May 2022</ref>
==See also== *Apatheism *Inclusionism *Religious pluralism *{{annotated link|Trivialism}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Attribution== * {{catholic|wstitle=Religious Indifferentism}}
==Further reading== * Connell, Francis J., C. SS. R., ''Freedom of Worship'' (Paulist Press, 1947) * Connell, Francis J., C. SS. R., ''Morals in Politics and Professions'' (Paulist Press, 1946)
{{Religious pluralism}} {{Beliefs condemned by the Catholic Church}}
Category:Catholic theology and doctrine Category:Philosophy of religion Category:Relativism