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Meaning-Making in an Atheist World

Meaning-Making in an Atheist World © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/157361211X564611 Archive for the Psychology of Religion 33 (2011) 55-78 brill.nl/arp Meaning-Making in an Atheist World Tatjana Schnell a), * and William J. F. Keenan b), * a) Assistant Professor, Institute of Psychology, Innsbruck University, Innsbruck 6020, Austria tatjana.schnell@uibk.ac.at b) Associate Professor of Sociology of Religion and Culture, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK william.keenan@ntu.ac.uk Received: 26 July 2010; revised: 16 December 2010; accepted: 20 December 2010 Abstract This article explores atheist meaning-making by employing a multidimensional model of mean- ing operationalized by the Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe). When compared to a representative sample of “religionists” ( N = 390) and “nones” ( N = 178), atheists ( N = 102) show lower degrees of meaningfulness , but they do not suffer from crises of meaning more frequently. However, subsequent cluster analysis reveals that heterogeneity within atheism has to be taken into account. Three types of atheists are identified. ‘Low-commitment’ atheists are characterised by generally low commitment; they report very low meaningfulness and a high frequency of crises of meaning. ‘Broad-commitment’ atheists exhibit considerably higher levels of meaningfulness and rare crises of meaning. They evidence, in particular, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Archive for the Psychology of Religion Brill

Meaning-Making in an Atheist World

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0084-6724
eISSN
1573-6121
DOI
10.1163/157361211X564611
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Abstract

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/157361211X564611 Archive for the Psychology of Religion 33 (2011) 55-78 brill.nl/arp Meaning-Making in an Atheist World Tatjana Schnell a), * and William J. F. Keenan b), * a) Assistant Professor, Institute of Psychology, Innsbruck University, Innsbruck 6020, Austria tatjana.schnell@uibk.ac.at b) Associate Professor of Sociology of Religion and Culture, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK william.keenan@ntu.ac.uk Received: 26 July 2010; revised: 16 December 2010; accepted: 20 December 2010 Abstract This article explores atheist meaning-making by employing a multidimensional model of mean- ing operationalized by the Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe). When compared to a representative sample of “religionists” ( N = 390) and “nones” ( N = 178), atheists ( N = 102) show lower degrees of meaningfulness , but they do not suffer from crises of meaning more frequently. However, subsequent cluster analysis reveals that heterogeneity within atheism has to be taken into account. Three types of atheists are identified. ‘Low-commitment’ atheists are characterised by generally low commitment; they report very low meaningfulness and a high frequency of crises of meaning. ‘Broad-commitment’ atheists exhibit considerably higher levels of meaningfulness and rare crises of meaning. They evidence, in particular,

Journal

Archive for the Psychology of Religion – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2011

Keywords: atheism; meaning in life; nonbelief; Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe); sources of meaning; crisis of meaning

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