Martin Butler's Negative Philosophy

Martin Butler's Negative Philosophy

Blessed Indifference

Indifference is freedom, but the moralists won't like it.

Martin Butler's avatar
Martin Butler
Sep 16, 2025
∙ Paid

a wooden bench sitting next to a body of water
Photo by aboodi vesakaran on Unsplash

You might have noticed that the Divine is a model of indifference. It really doesn't matter whether you are indulging in ecstatic sex or whether you are in the process of being hung, drawn, and quartered; the Divine will be wholly indifferent. I don't suppose it would do for God to be blown around like a leaf in the wind by reacting to the pleasures and horrors of creation. More importantly, this raises the question of whether indifference is a trait we humans can develop to help us deal with the pleasures, pains, and horrors of the world.

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