An ontic (real, vs. phenomenal) referent, is an actual reference point one uses as a standard with which to evaluate data.
To an atheist, it would be a measurement, a metric, by which they gauge or determine right from wrong (in the absence of God’s moral law – in which they do not believe). And, since the measurement would be self-derived, it would be subjective.
e.g. – one might say “the laws of man or society are my referent” or “self preservation is my referent”.
But, in the case of the former, where does the inherent value of life come from to ascribe those laws – given that our origins were of non-reasoning, non-intelligent matter only? And, in the latter – suppose that your neighbor determines that in order for him to survive, you must die; now where’s your faith in your referent?
Objective moral values and laws exist only if God exists. Anything else is simply one man’s subjective opinion of how things should be vs. another man’s [again subjective] opinion. And, though some maintain that “man is the measure of all things” – we are compelled to ask “Which man?” – Adolph Hitler, Mother Theresa, Hugh Hefner, the Dalai Lama or Ghengis Kahn…?
So…how do you measure up?
apologetics workshop 
gabulmer
April 20, 2014
Reblogged this on @Pablo de Fleurs.
justinsteckbauer
August 14, 2014
Reblogged this on Liberty Community Online and commented:
High quality information.
gabulmer
October 31, 2016
[Response to ‘The Moral Argument | Everything Requires Faith’ (see below, in Trackback]
Most atheists do not understand their own Worldview: which posits mankind’s existence as random, pointless & meaningless. Within that construct, there simply is no metric, no referent for ‘good’, ‘evil’, ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Reason does not get one to morality – because it would always be subjective; meaning that for every 100 people, there would be 100 versions of morality.
Morality must be objective (outside of ourselves). And it must be absolute (or it isn’t moral). In order for that to happen there must be a moral law giver. The Christian believes that God is the moral law giver who maintains unchanging, absolute standards by which we live & are judged. In order for the atheist to accept adhere to that, they must smuggle in the Christian Worldview and adopt part or all of it into their own Worldview.
Our Ontic or ontological referent is God’s moral law. The atheist does not have that & needs must either adopt the Christian Worldview or erect a referent (as my article points out) of their own. But because it is subjective and given to the whims and capriciousness of the changing human mind…it will not stand up over time.