What's the meaning of life to an atheist?

[GhastlyCC]

If there is no God, then there is no absolute truth, meaning or morality either.

 

[GhastlyCC]

If you ask this question of 100 different atheists, I expect you will get 100 different answers. That is because, to an atheist, (like NathanielWingatePeaslee said) life is whatever you make of it

Contrary to what many religious think, atheists don't look at life as meaningless or without purpose; far from it. We believe that this is the only life we will ever have, so we'd better make the most of it. Each life is very precious to an us it is something that is absolutely irreplaceable, it doesn't last forever, and there are no second chances. Sure, we could just kill ourselves and be done with it, but why? We're here, so we might as well see what we can make of the experience while we have it!

but Christians are going through their whole lives simply waiting for death, so that they can get to a promised afterlife So to us, living a life in hopes of getting to a mythical world seems like a life wasted.

Great post.:thumbup:

 

[Lea]

I think this way - people are either happy or not. Those who are happy, don´t have a need to search for meaning of life. Those who aren´t, will probably not find a satisfactory meaning of life. Same, happiness has to come before success, not after. But where to get that ****ing happiness if that has to come first. I hate happiness beause I don´t have it

Btw I am not atheist, I am a don´tknower with open mind, that means I haven´t and can´t make a conclusion about what the world is, but I don´t refuse the possibility of God, afterlife and spiritual things.

 

[Ashiene]

Being an Atheist is being free from the bondage and restraints of religion.

 

[Kiwong]

In many ways I have lived poorly, and would be considered by many a failure. However, I have been happy, only in intense but brief moments, but they are worth it. Despite this I have purpose and hope. I love this amazing earth, and I have only a finite time left to enjoy it. There are things that I have a passion for that give me hope despite crippling and severe anxiety.

The answer to my problems is inside my mind, not in the teachings of religion.

 

[cooandtwo]

I am an atheist, and imo there is no meaning to life, why would there be? I think its a bit daft to think there would be personally and spend time pondering what it might be, why would there be meaning to a bunch of cells and elements we just are.

 

[vj288]

Wait...there are actually people who know the meaning of life?

 

[hoddesdon]

If there is no God, then there is no absolute truth, meaning or morality either.

Nietzsche - The Parable of the Madman

I'm glad to have helped Klaus! Ecclesiastes is still my favourite book in the Bible. Solomon was a genius! If you ever wanna talk some more feel free to send me a message.


The thing that stumps me is that I often hear it said that if there is no God then we are free to create our own meaning and morality. i.e. "what's true for you is true for you and what's true for me is to true for me". But here's my question; is that statement itself true for ALL people or not? If so, then it is self refuting. If not, and it is only true for you, then why should I believe anything that you say?

So far it seems to me that all forms of relativism are ultimately self refuting. Like when people say that there are no such things as absolute truths! If that statement were true then it would be an absolute truth itself! To me, it seems that the only way morality, truth and meaning can make any sense, is if there is a transcendent absolute creator of that meaning, truth and morality above human kind.

"The greatest question of our time is not communism vs. individualism, not Europe vs. America, not even the East vs. the West; it is whether men can bear to live without God."
— Will Durant

Ravi Zacharias - Can Man Live Without God [Google Video]

+1

I must read Ecclesiastes myself.

 

[S_Spartan]

The bigger question is, why does life have to have a meaning? It is the fragile human ego that searches for meanings. That way it can verify it's own existence in the world.

 

[TheNomad]

The bigger question is, why does life have to have a meaning? It is the fragile human ego that searches for meanings. That way it can verify it's own existence in the world.

Exactly. It may or may not (though probably not) , but it does not have to.

 

[Megaten]

We cant even travel that far from this planet and we're trying to answer questions like "whats the meaning of life?" lol.

 

[BlackPuma]

Not everything needs a reward or consequence. Sometimes deeds are just deeds.

My purpose for survival actual comes from polarizing reasoning. If the world isn't governed by an overseeing deity, how can I not stay and try to balance it out? It needs all the help it can get.

If you learn to appreciate the little things in life, even great suffering becomes a battle worth fighting.

 

[PugofCrydee]

The bigger question is, why does life have to have a meaning? It is the fragile human ego that searches for meanings. That way it can verify it's own existence in the world.

I agree.

In the universal scale we are probably nothing more than the equivalent of bacteria living on a grain of sand on a beach. Consider all the other grains of sand on all the beaches of all the world.. yea, we are pretty insignificant universally.

So in that respect, I believe life doesn't have some 'meaning'. We just 'are'.