Atheism and the meaning of life - what drives you?

[brewer]

I don't think your daughter is generic, but I understand. Maybe you and LFC want some overall grand purpose, I'm not sure. For me, I get enough meaning from the little things, often quite mundane. If I'd get to much 'in the head' over meaning of life I'd probably make myself depressed.

That is certainly a possibility and many people struggle with this.  The idea of just living/surviving from one day to the next, going to a dead end job, having no grand aspirations in life.  These are real obstacles for people feeling satisfied with their life.  I think this is why religion is such a draw.  Its proponents promise meaning and joy and an afterlife of great reward.  Of course these things are appealing.  They are also smoke and mirrors but I can understand why people get pulled into them and once pulled in, your own mind works to reinforce that what you are doing is in fact fulfilling this wonderful promise.  Fun fact, our mind/brain wants to fool itself so it won't get pissed off that we are doing something stupid.  It actually wants to believe that whatever we are doing is exactly what we should be doing, least we get depressed about it.  Talk about circular!

Um....... no. For me it's more like whatever I want to be doing. There were plenty of thing's I did that I knew I should not (self destructive) but did them anyway. But that's a completely different psychological discussion.

Let me ask this, are those that are unsatisfied and struggling because they feel no sense of a meaning in their life have some underlying need to feel important, special? Those people might need to take a George Bailey perspective.