Christian "purpose" and "meaning" in life.

[Mudhammam]

How can purely physical things and processes have any meaning at all? Ontological naturalism excludes both final and formal causes. Those exclusions make any form of intentionality impossible.

Secondly a life has meaning in the same way symbolic representations do. Words and pictures point to things other than themselves. Thus a person's life has meaning to the extent that it serves as a sign and symbol of something they value. The difference between atheists and believers is that atheists can only refer to proximate values whereas believers identify with transcendent or eternal values.

I'm really confused by this. Ontological naturalism does not exclude intentionality from physical processes. In fact, it's those physical processes that perhaps for the first time brought intentionality into the Universe through the evolution of brains. Of course, it makes no sense to speak of each individual atom or particle as having intentionality, but it makes all the sense in the world to speak of persons possessing meaning and purposes... which are indeed physical processes at work. In fact, it makes no sense to apply meaning to anything besides physical processes, such as ghosts, gods, and other strictly non-physical fantasies.

I also don't know what you mean by a transcendent or eternal value. It sounds like you want to elevate an intuition or well-reasoned value to the status of sacred, which you define approximately, and then pretend that somehow it's categorically differentiated from the values that atheists develop via experiences in the real world. Talk about a major inflation of the ego, to imagine your values to be so placed on a pedestal without any attempt at justification.

Its not an argument from ignorance. You espouse a a materialist view that intentionally denies that physical systems seek desired ends. Then you engage in special pleading that a certain type of physical process, human brain function, can do so.

Special pleading?! What else is a human brain good for if not creating meaning?! Do rocks do this?