Theists, What Do You Get Out of Religion?

[Mister Agenda]

In response to Mister Agenda's question:

A while back I got hammered for equivocating atheism with ontological naturalist even though 99.9% of atheists tacitly accept it. For the study of nature, methodological naturalism right limits its inquiries to matter [material cause] and efficient cause. Formal and final causes are not considered. Ontological naturalists make the metaphysical claim that only material and efficient causes exist. Physical objects and events are not ‘about’ anything. They just are. For the ontological naturalist the apparent intentional behavior of some things, from thermostats to human beings, is an illusion. That means that any concept that hinges on intentionality, like meaning and purpose, is also just a phantasy. Thus, the ontological naturalist that says their life can have meaning is contradicting himself or herself.

You say that for the ontological naturalist the apparent intentional behavior of human beings is an illusion, but that does not seem to be a necessary consequence. It sounds like you are conflating it with the position that there is no such thing as free will.

It seems to be a pattern of yours that when someone holds a position that you have trouble parsing, you always conclude that they are contradicting their own position rather than considering that you may not fully understand their position.

But you are not necessarily wrong, of course. Hopefully the comments of others will illuminate this matter.