It is a big difference to me. Not knowing is one thing, not caring is another. As a former fundamentalist I do care about how I was indoctrinated at a young age, how it affected my mental health and how religion affects others. I understand the position of not caring, but religion had a devastating effect on my life. I wish to help those who were also indoctrinated into cults, so they do not have to go what I went through.

Looking into the readily googlable meanings of apatheism, I'd say I'm probably circling around that conclusion. The more I look into the apologetics of theism, the more it seems as ridiculous and comical as belief in leprechauns. See a thing with an unknown cause, and slap on the mystical creature of your choice as the agent.

No

As others have suggested, "apathy" is a pretty subjective term.

Theists frequently accuse atheists of "hating" god, but hatred, being nothing more than disappointed love, is not the problem. In the absence of belief, there can be no love. It is far worse than the hatred we're accused of towards god; we're indifferent (a term I prefer to "apathetic", which for many people connotes intellectual laziness, thereby suggesting that atheism is not a considered view).

What we're NOT indifferent about is the ill effects of religious faith on society.

As for agnostics, I don't think this has any relation to apathy / indifference as its simply the view that, inherently, no supportable knowledge claim can be made for OR against the existence of deities, because truth claims about supernatural beings and realms are not falsifiable hypotheses.

My impression has long been that those self-identifying as apatheists are simply trying to affect that they're above / beyond any form of debate on the topic. It also probably is a better fit for people who aren't deconverts, who have never really had to engage with religious ideation and see no reason to begin doing so now. I see it as completely separate from both agnosticism and atheism.

A-gnostic means 'not gnostic,' where gnostic refers to a specific way of knowing, namely, by means of revealed mystical knowledge from god. So a-gnostic denotes a rejection of mysticism and revelation, and thus accepting or prefering materialism and naturalistic skepticism as a way of knowing. Since it is specific in this way, it is not apathetic. I consider myself a rather enthusiastic a-gnostic! (Pun intended!)

I like calling myself an apatheist. It kind of goes one step further than an agnostic. As in I don't know if there's a god or not but even if there was proven to be one, I wouldn't care nor would I worship it.

So many eisms and so little time..on the face of it there is no God and no afterlife. So have a glass of wine and let the religious fight like two bald men fighting over a comb..

No, apatheism is way worse than agnosticism. I feel for you.

I think apatheism is a subset of agnosticism (probably a subset encompassing most agnostics).

I don’t know and I don’t care? They seem pretty distinct, but I can understand how some may see a crossover.