>Meaning is whatever you want it to be.

That is basically the post-modern absurdist position on the meaning of life. Most people still believe in an external source of meaning (religion) that exists regardless of your personal opinion.

People finding meaning in religion falls under my suggestion that people find their own meaning. They find it in that religion and belief.

Now, you and they may take the opinion that their meaning exists whether I believe in it or not, and that their view is truth and my view is heresy. That's fine, they can believe that if they want to. I don't. However, my belief system has room for theirs.

What most people believe has no bearing on the truth; truth isn't a democracy, so your point lacks meaning. His point, was truth, you make your own meaning in this world.

>His point, was truth, you make your own meaning in this world

That is an entirely subjective belief. You and I might hold that opinion, but the majority of people in the world do not. For them, the "truth" about the meaning of life is externally imposed and exists outside any one person's opinion.

That one can make ones own meaning is objectively true, that there exists outside meaning is only subjectively true as there's no evidence such an outside force exists while ones own existence is not in question, so no, what I stated was objectively true while what most people believe is only subjectively true.

>what I stated was objectively true while what most people believe is only subjectively true

It's not really, but of course you believe it is. Nobody wants to believe that their beliefs are just as arbitrary any anyone else's.

It isn't a matter of what I believe, it is objectively true that people can "can" choose their own meanings in life; that is not a belief, it is a fact, this is objectively demonstrable by the fact that people do exactly that and you'll find many people in this thread saying exactly that.

It is also objectively true that people can choose to rely on an external source of meaning, but it is only subjectively true that external objective meaning exists precisely because it cannot be objectively demonstrated that the source of said external objective meaning actually exists, therefore it is a subjective belief that there is objective meaning outside ones self.

It's notable that you're selectively quoting leaving out exactly that part that explain the logic behind said statement. You're either unable to discern the meaning of objective/subjective, or you're being dishonest with the selective quoting. Either way, you're incorrect. If you want to continue to debate this, you must demonstrate the logical flaw in either of the two above paragraphs.

Thanks for bringing this up. Small things can have huge personal significance. I think the article makes sense until it tries to model meaning in an impersonal way; there's a bit of a switcheroo when the author goes from saying meaning is an emotion to saying it is a matter of fact.

I'd say that meaning, as a cognitive emotion, is heavily dependent on what "facts" we hold to be true and what stories we tell ourselves. Most people are not telling themselves stories about the entirety of time and space, so it literally has no impact on their experience of meaning. Death, on the other hand, affects us all; everyone has an attitude towards their own future and eventual death, however unexamined it is. That doesn't mean everyone has the same attitude, though. Some people would like to become immortal above all else, while others are not bothered in the slightest by having a finite lifespan, or believe that their "spirit" is somehow infinite.

It is possible to intellectualize about where meaning comes from in order to bring more into your life, as a kind of therapy; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logotherapy