The Czech and the Polish people are among the nations which both differ and have much in common. The ethnical, linguistic and cultural similarity is juxtaposed with a number crucial differences in mentality. One of the most noticeable of the differences is that of religiosity in the two West Slavic nations. In this respect, they are poles apart. The Polish are regarded as one of the most traditionally religious nations in Europe, whereas the Czech are considered the most secular one. This claim is substantiated by the statistical data, most of which are analysed in the article.
The main goal of the article is to find the historical explanation of the present situation. The author focuses on the problems of the Czech religious indifferent- ism and its origin. He refers to Poland in a comparative manner. He attempts to modify the oversimplified image of Czech atheism supposedly stemming mainly from the distant times of the Hussites and from the policy of the communist authorities. He puts the emphasis on the times of the national rebirth, as well as on the Counter-Reformation and on the intellectual ideas of the interwar period. Moreover, he indicates the different relation between the category of religion and that of nation in the two countries
