The Myth of Meaning: Meaning Without Gods — Relational Significance Reframed

The Problem

Across theology, philosophy, and secular thought, meaning is often imagined as something given, pre-existing, or ordained. From divine command to cosmic order, from immortal legacy to eternal structures, significance is projected onto reality as if it were a fixed property rather than an emergent pattern.

The Distortion

This persistent inheritance from theology appears in secular thought in many forms:

• Teleology recast as purpose without God

• Human exceptionalism as the sole seat of significance

• Language, culture, and morality treated as conduits of pre-given meaning

• Archives and structural systems imagined as repositories of eternal truth

In all cases, the logic of theology lingers: meaning is something bestowed, discovered, or preserved, rather than enacted.

The Relational Alternative

Relational ontology dissolves these shadows. Meaning arises through the actualisation of potential in relational networks. Symbols, norms, practices, and experiences acquire significance through participation and perspectival construal. Humans are not exceptions or privileged holders of meaning — they are participants in ongoing relational processes that generate, sustain, and transform significance.

Takeaway

The Myth of Meaning series shows that the search for meaning need not carry the weight of divine inheritance. By reframing significance as relational, contingent, and emergent, we free ourselves from theological shadows. Meaning is not found or given; it is enacted, negotiated, and continually recreated in the interplay of potential and actual — a universe alive with relational possibility.