Ateista, agnostyk, niewierzący…? Socjologii niereligii problemy z terminologią
Atheist, Agnostic, Nonbeliever…? Sociology of Non-religion and Problems with Terminology

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to answer the question whether there is an optimal term describing the attitude of non-religiosity. Optimality means here usefulness for sociologists who deal with the issue of non-religiosity, regardless of the geographical and cultural context of their research. There exist numerous relevant descriptions of a non-religious attitude. At the outset I suggest distinguishing two dimensions of analysis: etic and emic. In the next step I offter a review of the etic descriptions, i.e. those used by social scientists who finally come to the conclusion that the optimal term in this sense is “nonreligiosity”. After that I report, based on the findings of my own research, what kind of terms are used by Polish nonbelievers and how they understand the meaning of these terms (emic dimension). During my own research I used the term “nonbeliever” which, in my opinion, was and still is a good choice in the Polish context. However, one may observe a high degree of individualization and privatization in using particular terms that, unfortunately, do not help to answer the question concerning the optimal term.

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