[bunny]

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Theists have that, but also have the ability to work within god's plan and be a part of something bigger than them - to have their lives viewed as important by someone (ie God) who defines that overarching, cosmically significant meaning.

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I tried to address that by stating versions of - Finding out you are a galley slave in the largest ship captained by the most powerful king in history does not add meaning to your life, it's de-meaning.

That he loves you and will even save the odd red-headed girl in the school bus crash is merely his plan, his goals. Sure, you can agree to keep pulling on the oars at his direction but that seems like a pretty weird version of 'meaning'. It also dodges the issue completely.

People can get meaning out of a love for sausages, so we can't say god adds meaning by what we actually add by buying into his plot. That meaning then came from us ( as all meaning does) not from his.

A theist has to tell me HOW god imbues me with meaning by the mere fact that he loves me and has a major plot in mind with me in it. NOT by my reaction it ( else it's coming from me, as usual).

thanks for trying but no cigar, luckyme

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I clearly didnt explain very well. I dont think the claim is that the meaning you ascribe to your life is increased by believing in god. I think the claim is that the total amount of meaning is increased (which they value and you may not).

In other words, there's the same amount of subjective meaning ascribed by atheists and theists, but if theists are right then there is another source of meaning - namely that ascribed by god. This meaning ascribed by god is what they refer to as absolute meaning (the claim being it is present if god exists, but there is no analogous source of meaning if he doesnt - just subjectively ascribed-by-us meaning).