Meaningless, Meaningless
The world is meaningless!
Subjected to vanity by God
But in hope
Nothing matters but to love
You and serve You
Dear Lord
These three remain
Faith, Hope, and Love
But the greatest is love
As I am sorrowful
Yet I am rejoicing
My heart is broken and tender
Tender like a little child
Burn me with Your love
And melt away all labels
Reduced to nothing
But dust and ashes
Gabe, I don’t grasp your distinction between mattering-to God vs. mattering. I’d think that ‘God’ is usually posited as the ultimate reality and arbiter of values & worth, and so if we have no worth in reference to God, we can have no objective worth that matters (though of course we can place subjective or arbitrary worth on anything we wish). And yes, I’d think Nihilism and Hedonism would logically follow from that position. (I.e. if we don’t matter to a reality that is properly defined as 'God" or supreme, if follows that objectively we can not ultimately matter at all.)
But no, I have not found most atheists or agnostics follow this logic in practice. Indeed, I perceive that many of them are as passionate about loving neighbors as are most religious folk. Of course, I think this results from what my response implied, that most people do Not “deeply” affirm that people don’t really matter, because they intuitively sense that love is the ultimate value we need, and that persons are treasures which have incredible value. Of course, a religious person might guess that this innate sense results from being made in the image of ‘God.’
I.e. my observation is not just sociological, but philosophical. For I perceive that we’re wired to subjectively sense that people matter, and thus motivated to rethink assumptions that would make this an irrational conclusion. I detailed this logical apologetic: Reasons to Follow Jesus - An Apologetic
All the best to you,
Bob