The God Irony

What is irony? Is it a simple "coincidence," or objective take on a daily reality? Beyond this, does irony actually exist, or is is something that the human conscience has invented to try to spin a web of deluded meaning in our largely insignificant lives? I am partial to the second theory. The largest excuse for meaning in the world is Religion. Religion is a spin off of irony. "Miracles", the largest justification of a higher power are in themselves ironic moments. I believe that this search for meaning is fruitless, and Julian Barnes, and Geoffrey Braithwaite understand this. Their "randy for relics" search is not one that they have tied in with anything more important that a hobby. Not a passion, not a belief, a hobby. Any irony in Flaubert's life they do not see as a divine light shining on a prophet of literature. It is purely irony, and nothing more. I believe that mankind would be better off without an endless search for a higher meaning, but am not naive enough to foresee such an abandoning of ingrained tradition in the future. What is most important, I think, is that we learn to remark on irony without attribution it to something else, and see it for what it is, the inevitable coincidence. Monkeys typing Shakespeare.