Lovecraft thus embraced a philosophy of "cosmic indifferentism". In addition, he strongly defended the Catholic religion against indifferentism and relativism. Pope Pius IX wrote a number of times against religious indifferentism. This religious indifferentism caused Rousseau and his books to be banned from France and Geneva. Indifferentism is not to be confounded with religious indifference. The Catholic Church ascribes indifferentism to many atheistic, materialistic, pantheistic, and agnostic philosophies.