The Bearable Lightness of Being: Ironic meaning-making among the non-religious

This article considers the premise that a meaningful life demands religion. Throughin-depth interviews with fifteen self-identified nonreligious individuals, we explorehow they navigate existential questions, particularly those concerning theodiceanissues of illness, death, and suffering. Our findings reveal that while intervieweesoccasionally struggle with feelings of meaninglessness, precisely their disbelief inultimate meaning provides them with a sense of freedom, relief, and acceptance. Themechanism behind this is irony, constituting a mode of consciousness thatparadoxically and playfully acknowledges the contingencies and uncertainties ofexistence. This ironic mode of consciousness, we conclude, does not only providemeaning to a perceived meaningless life, but leads those religious nones to sociallydistinguish themselves from (religious) people who do believe that life has anintrinsic meaning.