People whining about how secularism deprives people of “meaning” are entitled. The universe does not owe you meaning. You are an animal among animals, on a rock orbiting an unremarkable dwarf star in an unremarkable spiral galaxy. One day humanity will go extinct and nothing we will have ever been or done will “mean” anything. Meaning is for the weak. You want transcendence? Here it is—contemplate the universe without you, without civilizations, without humans, without Earth. Nothing else would change. The laws of physics would stay the same, the aeons-long course of the universe’s expansion and ultimate heat death remains the same, no one and nothing notices or cares about your absence. That is transcendent. Your god is a tiny, petty god, a front for your miserable vanity.