Moderate supernaturalism holds that God is necessary for ultimate meaning in life. It is possible for persons to live a meaningful life in a universe without God, but a maximally meaningful life is only possible with God (Mawson 2016, Swinburne 2016). One way of arguing for moderate supernaturalism is to claim that only God could satisfy our deepest desires (Goetz 2012, Seachris 2013, Cottingham 2016). In this video, I advance an argument for this position.

The argument centers on God’s love, and it offers replies to two objections facing moderate supernaturalism. One of our deepest desires in life is to be loved. What is love? Love consists in two intertwined desires: the desire for union with the beloved and the desire for the good of the beloved (Stump 2006). As humans we have a deep desire for meaningful relationships. We long to be united to others that desire our own good. Other persons can satisfy this desire, but they cannot satisfy it to the ultimate degree. Why? Human love is fickle. The desires that constitute love wax and wane with a confluence of rational and irrational factors. Strength of love between persons fluctuates, and it is limited by our finite and fallible mental and emotional capacities.

God is the greatest possible being. God possesses all great-making properties to the greatest possible degree. Love is a great-making property. So, God is loving to the greatest possible extent. God’s love for persons doesn’t fluctuate. It is steadfast. God always desires union with us, and God always desires our good to the greatest possible degree. Being in a loving relationship with an all-loving God satisfies our deepest desire for love to the maximal degree. Along this dimension of value, God’s love maximizes meaning in life.

This view offers replies to two objections facing moderate supernaturalism. First, Kahane (2014) objects that God’s greatness would overwhelm our significance, so our lives will only be significant in a universe without God. In reply, God’s love, as an essential aspect of God’s goodness, is unconditional and aims at our goodness. God’s love amplifies our significance; it doesn’t diminish it. Second, it is objected that if God’s greatness introduces meaning, then it also introduces corresponding anti-meaning. Thus there’s no net gain in meaning with God in the picture (Metz 2013, 2019). However, God’s love doesn’t introduce exactly corresponding anti-meaning. If loving God introduces maximal meaning, not loving God doesn’t (in this life) introduce a corresponding degree of anti-meaning. Introducing great positive-meaning isn’t inversely correlated to introducing great negative-meaning in this case. Not loving God isn’t equivalent to hating God, and most people that don’t love God don’t necessarily hate God.

In sum, God’s love makes life maximally meaningful along a dimension of value central to human nature and the human experience – the deep desire for love.