Atheists: What is your stand on the meaning of life?

Question

Do you believe in anything at all? I just want to know. If you don't believe in an afterlife, God the devil...don't you get a bit afraid of that? That your life means completely nothing and what you do on Earth is a complete waste? What turned you off of the thought of a higher existence/power?

Perhaps you can clear this up for me because I'm curious. And no I'm not attacking your belief. (I can actually understand why there are such people as atheists). I've always wanted to know what an atheist had to say about this.

I'm actually liking most of these answers. They make sense, some of the questions other athesis post on here make me feel like atheists are so insecure and need to prove something. While some of the questions "Hard Core Religious People", also are a bit insecure--tend to shove religion down other's throats. I really dislike a lot of what I see from both groups sometimes.

Once A Christian posted this same question directed toward other Christians, and I said the purpose was to live your life to the fullest, and So many other christians, gave me thumbs down. I don't get it sometimes. I grew up in a church I hated, yet I find that I found my own way. I disagreed with everything, yet I have my own morals. But I still don't believe that...there isnt anything. Keep answering. I like what you have to say.

so far most of your answers are not generalizing. But i've seen a couple who are.

After reading all these questions, I've decided that I'm not going to choose the best answer myself. Some of you here are generalizing, you think all religious people are the same. I share a lot of the morals you have, and I can understand and accept that you choose not to believe in any sort of Diety, yet at the same time, I can't see how. I believe that life here, right now is meaningful, but I also believe that there is a life after death. I don't think my life is crap, thats why I'm making the most of it now. I don't sit around waiting for God to do my work. I wish that some of you would also stop attacking other people's faiths because it seems to me like you're self-righteous and have no tolerance or respect for any other people or their faiths. So I also understand why some others get so angry when Atheists come on here and Bible-bash. And yes, I have seen
"Christians" do it too. I thank you for your comments.

Answer 1

i believe in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNc-t479NXI

Answer 2

As an atheist, do I believe in anything at all? Yes. I believe in things that are observable and verifiable. I value the scientific method because it's the best tool we have to discover how things work.

Not believing in gods or demons is not scary. Why would it be?

I don't know where you got the idea that an atheists life is any more or less meaningful than a theists. Each of us creates our own meaning.

When I was six or seven, I had a conversation with my father. He, basically, told me to think for myself. I began to look at everything critically. Why did my catholic friend have to memorize from a catechism book, rather than give her own answers? Why did my friends go to church, even though they hated it? Why did women have to cover their heads in church, but men didn't? Why "confess" to a priest if you were just going to do the same thing again?

I came to the realization that religion made no sense. That it was something people did for social reasons, out of fear, out of loneliness. Then I read the christian bible, cover to cover, old testament and new. That convinced me that religion and theism are shams. It's all about one group of humans controlling another group of humans with beliefs that, if someone heard them for the first time as an adult, would be laughed at.

Answer 3

Thank you for asking the question in a non-attacking way. I don't believe in much of anything, and I don't feel a need to. No other animal species has that need, either. They live their lives the best they can, so do I. I do my best to help when I can, be a good person, precisely because I DON'T believe in an afterlife or a god. There's no cookies and milk waiting for me if I proclaim belief and then do whatever I see fit, hurting anyone I want, because I'm still saved. This world, this life, is it--so let's make it as pleasant as possible.

Answer 4

One thing I've never understood is the obsession with the greater "Meaning of Life" (apart of course, from the Monty Python film, which was brilliant). Why does life need a Meaning (note the big M)? Why would we, who are nothing but a speck on a backwater planet on the edge of a galaxy that is one amongst over a billion billions, deserve some special place in existence?

Having said that, my life means a great deal to me. This is all I get, and unlike theists, for me there is no "forever." Belief in an afterlife is the hope that one will never die, that the great unknown is warm and comforting, not dark and dimensionless. I would submit that Atheists do not live in fear, Theists do. Theists succomb to the great fear of death, and say, "Death is not the end, there is more to life than what we have." This is a position not of strength (though many theists take solace in this and call it strength) but a position from fear.

For an Atheist, this is the only life they have. This is the one chance, the one oppertunity we have to make a dent on this world. Knowing that, wouldn't you make as much of it as possible? This is the ultimate expression of the love of life, living like there is no tommorow because, basically, there isn't. Every day I try to enrich myself, not because it will help me in the afterlife, but because it will make my life better now. It's taught me to love life, and what real love can mean when there is no holding back. I can truely experience my humanity because I acknowledge that some day, I'm going to die. Some day, maybe tommorow, I'm going to cease to be, and I will make as much of this as I can. True love has no reservations, no conditions, and is limited only by one's commitment to human feelings, dignity and the truth of human experience. I love living, but know it will not go on forever.

In the end, what gives your life meaning? That you will be judged as good or bad by some great power, or that you are able to do it yourself? Have you lived a life that is worth something to you? Have you made a difference to those you love and who love you? Life has whatever meaning you give it, which is such and empowering statement. It's not the bleak lack of "Purpose" people attribute to it who are living a life confined by a religion, but the true purpose that you instill in yourself (Big P and small p).

The most basic question I can ask in return is: Why do you need something else to lend meaning to your life? Just because it's God, an all powerful all knowing etc. deity doesn't really change the fact that you don't value the true greatness of existence. If you need God to give your life meaning, you're not living, you're waiting to die so you can go to heaven. Is that how a Creator would want you to view his Creation? Would a God create you, then hold you back from realising all the wonder of living by saying that the only purpose was serve, not to lead? Is a life lived in fear, in servatude really lived?

These I cannot answer, for you make your own meaning for yourself. I can only wish a good life for you, but in the end, for a theist, a good life isn't really what matters. It's, for many, doing whatever it takes so that a real life, life eternal, can begin.

That is what I find scary. Pascal was wrong to make his wager as such, it should have been reversed. If the theist is wrong, then they have wasted their one chance to truely live for themselves, and give their own life meaning.

Peace be upon you.

Answer 5

Actually, atheists believe that life on earth is what's valuable, so make the most of it and be a good person for the sake of improving what is real. Life therefore not only does not mean nothing, it is more meaningful than anything else. We don't look for reward or peace in some mythical existence, we try to achieve it where it matters.

Answer 6

I don't believe that we are born with some purpose, rather, we must find a purpose, something that gives our lives meaning. Whatever that is, which gives one's life meaning, will become apparent as they grow older.

My life is meaningful to me because the things I do give me happiness. I like reading and learning about all sorts of things, learning about how the world works, and I also like helping people learn about math and science, and I hope to be a science teacher next year. I also enjoy hiking and being in nature, and learning about the natural world and all the living things within it. These things give meaning to my life, without needing to look for an intelligent creator of the universe.

If you have other questions, you can email me at [e-mail] and I'll try to answer them.

Answer 7

I don't think that what we do on Earth is a complete waste. It's important to the people that are here at the time they're here, and in my opinion, that's pretty important.
No, I don't think that there's some sort of "higher purpose". I don't really think that there needs to be. All of life doesn't have to have a "higher" purpose. The thing is to just make your life and the lives of those around you as good as you can for the time you and they have.

Answer 8

You get out of life what you put into it. I find meaning in helping people, and trying to be a good person. I agree with the poster who said that people looking for an eternal life while 'suffering' through this physical life are missing out on something - that chance to make this one life we get the best it can be! I hope my life has meaning, at least to those closest to me, but that's not my main purpose, either. I just hope those around me think I lived the best life possible when I'm gone.

Answer 9

Personally I don't believe there is an afterlife, nor do I believe that this life is a waste.
But that has already been very well explained in the previous answers.

I must wonder though, if the reason you believe in an afterlife is merely because you want it to be true?
Or is it fear that instilled your belief?

Either way, I'd like to see everyone enjoying this life to the fullest, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, or Jew.

Because no one really knows.

A famous person once said-
"I'd rather live my life like there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than to live like there isn't a God and die to find out there is."

Answer 10

You ask what we think the meaning of life is, and then in the same sentence go off about an afterlife!

It seems that you people are the ones without meaning in this life, as you seem only to care about what happens AFTER you die and whether or not you will get luxury gifts and gold streets to walk on. Spare me please.

Pretty pointless existence I would think. To waste ones life dreaming about invisible flying creatures and elves and other rubbish is truly tragic.

There are plenty of people alive NOW in the real world, who give my life meaning. I do all I can for them, and I will try to make sure that I leave them with as much of my knowledge as I can, before I die.

Answer 11

There is no meaning to life. However, we are free to give our lives meaning and therefore enjoy our lives to the fullest.

Part of me does not like the fact that death is the end and that it is inescapable. But another part of me appreciates the fact that all living creatures must eventually die. It is part of what makes life interesting and special.

And no I am not afraid of no afterlife. Unlike Christians, my religious beliefs are not based on fear. They are based on reason and logic rather than emotion.