The study of disbelief: qualitative and quantitative research methods

The article is devoted to the issue of studying the phenomenon of disbelief by qualitative and quantitative methods. In the first part of the article, the author gives a general picture of the formation of the sociology of unbelief in foreign scholarship. The problems that researchers encounter in the study of such phenomena as atheism, agnosticism, and anti-clericalism are shown. The lack of a developed conceptual apparatus common to all is emphasized. Then specific examples of the results obtained by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods of various forms of disbelief are offered. At the end of the article, generalizations are made about what the study of disbelief gives from the theoretical and practical points of view and why this study is necessary.