Religious Nones and the Ironic Worldview in Coping with Life, Death and Suffering

• In Event: 2253 - Religion

Abstract

How do religious nones deal with life, death, and suffering? Cultural sociology has fixated on either the waning significance of Christianity or the waxing significance of spirituality, leaving a blind spot for how those who do not believe in a transcendent force. We held fifteen in-depth interviews with Dutch respondents in 2015 and 2016 who claim that they do not believe, or highly doubt, that there is something like a God or immanent spirit. Paradoxically, the by our respondents experienced purposelessness and finiteness of life along with the insignificance of the individual, were precisely where they found the tools for endowing their lives with meaning. The key to consolidating these paradoxes of meaning was the ironic worldview: a wink and nod attitude that helped them make meaninglessness and finiteness bearable through detachment and play. This article opens up a sociological blind spot for a-religious meaning making, which is a significant subject considering the steady growth of the religiously unaffiliated. It proposes that the secular mind is not necessarily in existential crisis. Indeed, rather than collapsing under so-called postmodern chaos, the religious nones embrace and enjoy contingency. Although arguably not religious, the religious nones still appeal to a shared story to make life meaningful.

Authors

• Julia Peters

• Stef Aupers, Erasmus University

• Julian Schaap, Erasmus University