This is a question mainly for the atheists. If there is no God, what is the meaning of life? This is not meant as a criticism of you,but a desire to know your theory on this matter. Were we simply blinked into existence for no reason whatsoever and will we similarily be blinked out at the end of time?I too often doubt God, and when i do these kinds of questions occur to me. What do you guys think?If we assume there is no God, is there any purpose to existence?
To summarize. The meaning of life is to contribute to the process of creating the tools that will allow an end to pain, suffering, and death.
DaLovin’ Dj
Who says life even has to have “meaning.” All I try to do is the best that I can and treat people the way I want to be treated. Isn’t that enough? Why do I need to believe in some old white guy with a long white beard watching everyone to do this?
It’s a meaningless question.
In asking the question, you are making the assumption that life was created with someones grand plan in mind.
“blinked into” implies a sentient creator. While there are plenty of questions as to life’s origins for believers and non-believers alike, the “eye in the sky” theory seems to require a leap of faith that I for one just can’t accept without further evidence.
As for the “meaning” of life, that’s up to each and everyone to decide for themselves. Even those who ascribe to religious doctrine have to face those same questions. If belief in God brings comfort and joy, great. I personally find plenty of meaning in watching my kids grow up, reading a good book, learning new things, and of course commiserating with fellow dopers.
If the question is “How can an atheist be a moral person?”, I don’t believe an external deity is required to police our thoughts and actions. The Golden Rule, which seems to be the common thread in most if not all world religions, is a way of establishing a code of behavior for benefiting mankind as a species, and I think that’s in the best interest of everyone.
Whatever meaning YOU care to give it.
Darkrabbit is right, Minega. Your assumption that life has a “meaning” is a (well-disguised) logical fallacy known as “begging the question”.
I offer a counter-challenge. IF there is a God, then what’s the meaning of life? I think that if you consider the question seriously, you’ll realize that you’re no better off either way in regards to that question.
eat, have sex, and die.
This one is up in the air. There is a theory which states that all of existence is a quantum fluctuation with a net energy of zero. Everything is nothing. This is a tough one to wrap one’s head around. There may be no meaning other than that which we give it. And if we are eventually going to blnk out of existence, we need to figure out the where and how and try to prevent it. We still need alot more data before we can make an intelligent decision about where it all comes from and where it is all going. Luckily, people are working on the problems. They are using science and achieving progress. Deciding that you already have the answers is pretty foolish when we have so much more data to collect and analyze.
DaLovin’ Dj
A meaning of life is to evolve biologically, intellectually and morally to a point where there is no more suffering, no more strife, where mankind can be free of hate and able to exist within the universe in whatever way they choose.
It may even be that mankind can evolve into God (at least by some of the common deffinitions of God, all knowing, and all powerful)
Cheers, BIppy
Unless one has already decided that the sole purpose of existence is “to serve God” or something similar, I don’t think the existence of God is relevant to the question. Personally, I have found my existence and that of others to have been not only interesting, but valuable to at least a few; that seems sufficient justification.
As for the OP’s second question, the historical record shows thousands, if not millions, of whole species have ‘blinked’ (at least on a geologic time scale) into and out of existence on earth. Who decides whether or not the existence of these species (or individuals thereof) had meaning?
Seeing as you TOTALLY took what I was going to say Apos, I’m going to ‘humph’ of and pout.
Precisely. And even that requires one simply arbitrarily deciding that serving God is their purpose.
Remember, just because someone makes you with a purpose, doesn’t imply that their purpose is necessarily meaningful to you. It can be if you happen to find it meaningful. But in deciding whether or not it is meaningful to you or not, you’re really pretty much in the same boat as everyone else in having to decide what is meaningful.
Worse, the question is sort of nonsensical: you’re asking if an abstract concept “life” has a trait usually only associated with the judgements of individual subjects. It’s like asking “what’s hte favorite ice cream flavor of life?” “What’s the daytime phone number of life?”
There is no meaning of life. There is only meaning in life, which is to say: what meaning we give to it.
I’ve always felt that the “meaning of life” was whatever each person made of it, and if a person decides there is no meaning that’s valid too.
For me personally, I don’t think there’s a “meaning of life,” but my personal goal in life is to experience as much as I can, enjoy myself and hopefully change the world in some small way that will benefit others.
Gee, its hard to explain the meaning of life even with God.
here goes…
42.
As with the other atheists, I say there is no extrinsic meaning to life in the general sense. As to your own particular life, it has the meaning you assign to it.
I will go further, and say that I believe “meaning” as used in the OP is a byproduct of cognition. Our overdeveloped primate brains are very good at isolating cause and effect. For example, going back to the early days, it’s how we figured out that this plant makes us healthy while that plant makes us dead. “Thag tummy hurt. Why?”
Of course, before long, such a restless curiosity will turn to questions it cannot satisfactorily answer. “Okay, we know that if we bang this rock with that rock, we get a spark we can use to start a fire. What? Why does it do that? Uh, because there’s a fire demon living in the rock, and when he thinks he’s being attacked he shoots off a little piece of fire to scare away the attacker. Well, you think of something then.”
And then eventually you have to address questions that cannot be answered. “What happens after we die? We have no way of knowing, because nobody can come back and report. So let’s pick something from the smorgasbord of possible hypotheses, and since we can’t prove it one way or the other let’s choose one that is both emotionally satisfying and socially useful, and we’ll call it good.”
And thus is religion born.
No X~ - that’s not the meaning of life, just the answer to the ultimate question. 
Viktor Frankl said that man finds meaning in life through suffering and ultimately, overcoming - or better yet living through one’s suffering. I can see his point.
My take? There is no external meaning to life, it all depends on your frame of reference. For me, life simply is. I take each moment as it comes, and do my best to live life to its fullest - to be always mindful of where I am and what I am doing.
And since I am well known for tying everything in life back to a RUSH lyric -
MH
I think that Dinsdale summarized the true meaning of life best…eat, have sex (I’d say procreate), and die. Life DOES have a PURPOSE, which I would relate to ‘meaning’…the purpose is for your species (be you an ardvark or a human) to thrive, for your genes to be propagated to the next generation.
Sentient life is special…it can think and dream. I’d say, if there is a purpose of sentient life, its to expand outward to protect something thats infinitely precious in this universe…namely a species that can appreciate the universe itself, a species that learn and to grow, and understand that very universe.
warning blasphemy alert We, collectively, ARE god, IMO at least. We and every other (any other?) sentient species out there in the great void…
-XT