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I'm looking for a term or word for someone who is certain there was a God, but is no longer around. Maybe God died, went away, or just no longer keeps an eye on us.

I thought agnostic, but that seems to be someone who is unsure if god ever existed.

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  • Does this person think God went away or is it the person's belief that went away?
    – bib
    May 16, 2016 at 13:41
  • God went away. Sorry if that isn't clear.
    – Terry
    May 16, 2016 at 13:42
  • In the psalms we find the supplicant asking the Lord why he stays so far away in a time of need. Distant, but still addressable. Is the God of your question completely out of earshot? Can your God still hear prayers from this world?
    – TimR
    May 16, 2016 at 13:49
  • You need to be clearer and edit. Is it 'Person believes God definitely existed in the past but is currently unsure if He exists now' or 'Person believes God definitely existed in the past but now is sure that God doesn't exist (Or doesn't do anything at all' or 'Person used to definitely believe that God exists (at the time of believing), but currently is unsure if God exists now or if ever existed', or some other permutation? Please specify exactly what you want.
    – Mitch
    May 16, 2016 at 14:21
  • I thought I was clear, but I've tried to explain a bit more.
    – Terry
    May 16, 2016 at 14:27

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If someone believes that God went away because God died, you could call this belief theothanatology (and thus perhaps call the person a theothanatist - this concept has been put forward by some philosophers and is explained on this wikipedia page

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_is_dead

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    Don't think the Nietzsche quote is relevant, from the Wikipedia article mentioned , The phrase "God is dead" does not mean that Nietzsche believed in an actual God who first existed and then died in a literal sense. Rather, it conveys his view that the Christian God is no longer a credible source of absolute moral principles.
    – k1eran
    May 16, 2016 at 18:39
  • I meant because OP seems to be talking about a case where God literally exist once ?
    – k1eran
    May 16, 2016 at 18:54
  • No, they are talking about somebody's beliefs.
    – Max Williams
    May 17, 2016 at 7:25
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The word you are looking for is "deist". Essentially, they believe that god created the universe and that's about it, neither interfering in nor caring about human affairs and not required to sustain the universe in operation.

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    And that God is, specifically, a demiurge.
    – Dan Bron
    Jun 15, 2016 at 8:19
  • @DanBron great word, but demiurge doesn't imply that the creator is no longer present: it can mean a sort of creator/maintainer, although I do think that it is generally taken to mean "non-interventionist", ie not actually getting involved in any way with it's creations.
    – Max Williams
    Jun 15, 2016 at 10:19

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