Is nihilism the logical extreme of atheism?

[genkaus]

The question of the OP is “Is nihilism the logical extreme of atheism?” not “how does believe in God provide meaning.” That question would be a distraction from the original question.

As demonstrated earlier, in order to prove that nihilism is the logical extreme of atheism, you have to prove that belief in god can be the one and only reason that provides meaning. How do you expect to do that if belief in god itself is insufficient to provide meaning.

Except you haven’t proven that giving matter a specific form is sufficient to endow a being with final cause. So the burden of proof is on you when you claim that your life has purpose to justify that belief in purpose itself.

The existence of a conscious being capable of identifying function is sufficient to endow the being with final cause. That the conscious being itself is a product of matter in specific form is irrelevant.

Like I said, you may deny it, but that doesn’t mean that atheism isn’t actually nihilistic.

You haven't yet proven that it is.

The explicit answer is that denial of a spiritual dimension to reality leaves only the physical one. In turn, you get ontological naturalism. Whether that become material reduction or idealistic monism or something else doesn’t matter.

Atheism doesn't automatically deny the existence of spiritual dimension.
Also, false dichotomy - spiritual and physical dimensions aren't the only two options. There is the conceptual dimension as well.

I didn’t say that it did. I haven’t gotten to the third part about significance yet. What I did say was that death undermines lasting value. I think that’s pretty obvious to most people except Esquilax.

You are yet to establish that lasting value is significant to the meaning of life as well.