Dylan, you asked "It seems to me that one must step outside of materialism to assign meaningfulness to anything. I have stated this idea more than once but you are saying this is wrong, correct?" A materialist worldview doesn't deny that things have meaning to an individual or group of individuals. No need to step out of materialism for that. Materialism does deny that these meanings are absolute or intrinsic. Likewise with "purpose". It was not the purpose of evolution to evolve humans. We (along with the bulbs we grow) are an accident, and our existence is entirely due to the interplay of chance and natural laws. What meaning we find in life, we make ourselves. Lou