>>23068125you're right that people live as if life has meaning, even without believing in God.
but the question isn't whether people feel meaning, it's whether their worldview can justify it.
if moral values are just emergent preferences or social constructs, then there's no objective reason why one set of values ought to be preferred over another. you might feel with your feelings that justice matters, or that monogamy is wrong, but without a transcendent grounding, those are just personal or cultural opinions. and if someone else feels differently there's no ultimate standard to adjudicate between you.
so when i say "by its own admission" i mean that a materialist or naturalist framework admits it has no access to real moral oughts. it can describe behaviors but it can't prescribe them in any binding way.
that's not a personal feeling, it's a philosophical consequence.
you can certainly have metaphysical grounding that isn't theism. but then the burden shifts, what is your grounding and can it actually support the weight of the moral and existential claims you're making?
