There are various background issues that need to be discussed whenever the topic of conversation turns to religion and atheism. In particular, there are questions about how these terms are to be used in the course of the conversation. While it is sometimes the case that all parties to a conversation about religion and atheism have agreed what they mean by ‘religion’ and ‘atheism’, it is often enough the case that such conversations go poorly because the parties mean different things by ‘religion’ and ‘atheism’. In this paper, I discuss a range of questions about the meanings of ‘religion’ and ‘atheism’ that should be taken into account when we are asking global questions about ‘religion’ and ‘atheism’.

每当谈话的话题转向宗教和无神论时，就需要讨论各种背景问题。特别是，在对话过程中如何使用这些术语存在问题。有时，关于宗教和无神论的对话的所有各方都同意他们所说的“宗教”和“无神论”是什么意思，但这种对话通常很糟糕，因为各方所说的“宗教”意味着不同的东西。 '和'无神论'。在本文中，我讨论了一系列关于“宗教”和“无神论”的含义的问题，当我们询问有关“宗教”和“无神论”的全球性问题时，应考虑这些问题。