If you are an atheist, what is the meaning of life?

I try to live for the day. When it is over it is over so we should do our best to enjoy every day we have since we don’t have that many.

The Golden Rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

I also think most religions boil down to that sentiment if you skip the superstition.

Because life isn’t pointless. It’s all about doing the best you can, for others and for yourself, between birth and death.

Does there have to be a meaning? Is meaning the only thing that creates happiness, or can happiness come from the seeing your loved ones, and the smell of freshly cut grass, and knowing that you did a good job on that last task, and…??

Life simply is.

I try to eat children as often as possible and smear my menstrual blood onto nun’s foreheads. Yep, it’s a good fucking life. And answering meaningful questions like this.

The biggest absurdity of mankind is that we try to place meaning on that which has no absolute meaning.

To be alive is nothing special, it’s what you do with the life you have that makes it special and gives it meaning.

Same meaning as for every other species on the planet (who also do not believe in religion, by the way); survival of the genes through reproduction, and survival in general.

Not believing in an afterlife only makes this life more valuable, not less. This isn’t a holding area. This is all we’ve got. Why would that notion make you more eager to throw this life away?

Why does everything have to have meaning? Just be happy and enjoy your life. It’s all too short anyway.

I’m just here for the ride.

I’m here to get as much pussy as possible before I die.

~.

Who says life has to have some grand “meaning”?!

I look at it the other way, life not having a point is what makes it worthwhile. If life was only for a purpose it would hardly be worth living.

It’s a Monty Python film, ya daft bugger!!
Oh, you mean our own personal interpretation?
Okay, enjoy this shit while you can, coz it’ll be over in a fla…......!

The meaning of life is in the living of it, experiencing it and the love of others, and the love of nature and beauty.

I don’t really think in terms of the meaning of life. For me, I want to stick around to enjoy they happy moments, and to help others if I can.

We’re the product of a billion year evolution, why would you waste this consciousness? It’ll be over quick, so you might as well enjoy it while it’s here.

I believe that House summed it up best during this exchange:

Dr. House: I choose to believe that the white light people sometimes see, visions this patient saw. They’re all just chemical reactions that take place when the brain shuts down.
Dr. Foreman: You choose to believe that?
Dr. House: There’s no conclusive science. My choice has no practical relevance to my life, I choose the outcome I find more comforting.
Dr. Cameron: You find it more comforting to believe that this is it?
Dr. House: I find it more comforting to believe that this isn’t simply a test.

To be happy, and make those you care about happy.

Life has no meaning – it simply is, for you to do with as you please.

There is no such thing as meaning, until there is a thing that understands the concept meaning. Thus, life comes first, not meaning. And only a particular form of life, reasoning and conceptual critters like ourselves, can understand meaning. There is no intrinsic meaning to life. As @YARNLADY says-life simply is what it is. Meaning is created by how you live your mortal life. Make it good. It doesn’t last all that long.

Whatever you want it to be. That’s what it means to be human: the ability to make meaning. And since it’s all in your own head, no one can take it away from you, and if you don’t tell anyone what it is, no one can tell you you’re wrong.

<<<<<————Card carrying Theist… Sorry to intrude… but even for me, life does not come with a meaning.

Meaning is what I make OF my life… not what I get from my life.

life gave me life… the meaning I make of it is completely up to me

Life is an opportunity. As a child, you don’t have many choices and are pretty much at the mercy of your parents and family. School offers you the first chance to be who you want to be. From then on, you’re more and more in charge of who you are and what you will make of your life. Obviously, your choices are limited by what is presented for you to choose, but each step of the way is an opportunity to which you may react. How you react to it all makes it worthwhile or not. And you never know what is right around the corner, so you stick around to find out. Unless you no longer have the hope that it will be better. . .ever.

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@Rarebear Yes but what is the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything?

To live, to love. Why would we want to end that?

“The world is round; it has no point.”
—Adrienne Gusoff

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
—George Bernard Shaw

There is no purpose to life, but you can choose to live purposefully. It can be a frightening prospect to decide what to do without anyone telling you what to do. There are a lot of ways to go wrong when everything is up to you. What if you decide that life is about one thing, only to regret your choice many years later? That’s the risk you run when there isn’t an authority to obey. It’s real freedom, and with that comes real responsibility. The weight of it can almost crush you upon realization. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

We’re only here.

Life’s dear.

Get used to it.

@Lightlyseared Ah, well, right before the question was defined, the computer was blown up by a Vogon Constructor Fleet. But the dolphins got out though.

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The meaning is your parents had sex, and you were the result. We are all fucks, because we are the result of one.
Living is a pretty good reason to live. The meaning to your life is always whatever you make of it. The meaning of your life is what you love. There is no meaning of life, life just happens. I mean, the meaning is that is just how this universe has panned out so far.

Life is the result of a whole lot of other shit going down first, billions and billions of years of no life… Well, what was the purpose of that? Nothing. The universe is what it is, and we just happen to inhabit it. I would say lucky us, but there really is no luck to it. It is the likely the most probable thing to happen in order for us to even be able to ask these silly questions. I say most probable because it is what has in fact come to pass. Looking for the meaning of life is pointless, it’s well, rather meaningless. There is no hole here to be plugged by a deity, which needs a whole wraith of reasons to exist and mean it’s own deal.

And death seems to be well worth the wait.

”Death, the undiscovered country, from whose bourn, no traveler returns, puzzles the will. To die will be an awfully big adventure. Death is the destination we all share, no one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life.”

Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!

@Symbeline

Conan was a great movie :)

@Lightlyseared & @Rarebear the actual question was eventually found to be “what is six times nine?”. Arthur Dent always did think there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe.

@FutureMemory Hell yeah. :)

@downtide any universe that works on base13 is trully screwed.

@Lightlyseared EXACTLY!