Good exists - a Catholic comments

[FrustratedFool]

I guess I'm wondering why there being no ultimate meaning or free will matters. It seems these things have a certain meaning for you, which seems a contradiction to your apparent belief that absent ultimate meaning there is no meaning.

There being no ultimate meaning really only matters in contradistinction to those who claim otherwise, but I agree it wouldn't affect day to day life or likely even practical life at all. I believe in subjective meanings or semantic meanings and so on, I just don't hold to any objective ultimate meaning. I think that doesn't affect much except perhaps mood, and one's predisposition to believe religion or some other things.

Not having freewill, though, can (and in my life has) made a difference. For example, if I don't believe in freewill I'm going to be far more inclined to look favourably upon nanny-statism and tighter regulation for all manner of things from gambling control to hate speech legislation. It is more difficult to defend libertarianism than socialism without a belief in libertarian freewill.

Likewise, I find myself more inclined to suspend all judgement on everyone (myself included), no matter how abhorrent their actions. They could not have done otherwise. Hitler, for example, was just unlucky rather than a monster. His victims more unlucky. But at no point is there such a thing as morality or blame. This removes the force of retributive justice and inclines me more towards restuitionary justice models.