Abstract
What do young people talk about when the subject of religion comes up? That is the underlying question of this inquiry. The clearest conclusion is the non-univocal character of the term: religion is associated (a) with a relationship of values or an absolute code; (b) with an inner life or an “empty set”. In the case of a “relationship of values” or an “absolute code”, teaching is its structuring activity. The problem presents itself in quite another way when it is a question of “inner life”: there is a rupture between this group and the preceding two, but a bond with those for whom religion is “empty”, incapable of nourishing a lived meaning. A bipolarity thus emerges between the quest for truth and the pleasures of existence.