How much should we take Jonah seriously?

Reading through Cat's Cradle this time, what strikes me is Vonnegut's constant irony or sarcasm. Almost nothing in the book is meant to be accepted as written; he almost always means the opposite of what he says.

For example, Sandra in Ilium remembers Dr. Breed's commencement address, where he says people need to study science more to remove "all the trouble" in the world. Of course, he was supervising the creation of the atomic bomb at the time, so Vonnegut couldn't possibly be serious about this. The narrator even says Sandra was being serious and didn't see the humor in it.

When Jonah actually meets Dr. Breed, he describes an old serial killer who had 26 people "on his conscience." Once again, Breed and certainly the dead Dr. Hoenikker should have tens of thousands of people on their conscience, but Vonnegut leaves that to the reader to keep in mind. The narrator himself barely even indicates that he knows that sarcasm is going on.

This is in contrast to the rare points where Vonnegut and the narrator are actually honest and serious--for example, when the Girl Pool sings for Dr. Breed, or when Jonah relates the ideas of Bokononism. My question is, how is the reader supposed to differentiate between the ironic statements and the serious? What is the difference between "God really is love, you know" from Miss Faust and "Around and around and around we spin, / With feet of lead and wings of tin" from Bokonon?

Hello, welcome.

Please comment on others' posts with your own opinions and observations.

You can expect my first post soon.

Thanks.

Steve