Atheism and the meaning of life - what drives you?

[LadyForCamus]

Permanence. The ability to refer to those moments; to continue to be a subject who can apprehend events without an expiration date.

If you don't live forever, in short....life has no meaning?  Meaning can't be a thing that mortal creatures can only temporarily grasp for themselves?  It has to be different than everything else?  How is this different than the claim that without a heaven, there's no meaning to life?  

Lemme ask you this, if there's no meaning in life, how would living, forever, create it?

Apologies for the delay in responding; I was taking some time to seriously consider the very good questions you posed. I realized that I cannot think of a mechanism by which living forever could create some meaning that didn’t exist before permanence was added to the equation, which leads me to conclude that I am, in fact, wrong here, somehow. I just can’t pinpoint exactly where the disconnect is happening, and this might be because I’m having difficulty distinguishing between my thoughts and my feelings on the subject. But if my objection to meaning is finiteness, yet I can’t come up with a way by which infinite experience adds something extra, then I have to accept that my reasoning is likely flawed.

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Here, to me anyway, it seems like you're commenting not that life has no meaning, but that all of the meaning it does have that you do see is cheapened or deprived in some way by our inability to hold on to it forever.

Yeah. This hits me like an arrow to the chest every time I read it. I think it’s a more accurate description of what I’m trying (and failing) to articulate. Hey, have you ever tried your hand at counseling? You’d be good at it! 😉

Maybe what I think is, that that meaning borne from living a life, itself, feels meaningless, hollow, cheapened…or pointless to have if there will inevitably come a “time” when I cannot refer back to it and be cognizant of the very meaning I created. What is meaning that I can assign but, by virtue of reality, not sustain? What does it mean that living and dying is ultimately not really different from never having been born? I dunno. I’m not sure my time away in the corner to think has clarified much for me, I’m afraid; but I do know that I cause myself a lot of unnecessary existential grief perseverating on the issue, especially considering all the worry in the world isn’t going to change a damn thing, and it robs me of pleasurable, joyful thoughts; however fleeting they may ultimately be. 

As for passing on my genes as a form of bypassing mortality; I’ve never really come about it from that particular place, though I know others do and it brings them solace. That being said, your timing of mentioning it is funny because I got a positive pregnancy test the day after your reply. 🙂 Third and FINAL; holy shit, I’m getting too old for this, and if it’s twin boys I’m driving myself off a cliff. 😝 

Thanks for your infinite patience with my inane ramblings, btw. It’s much appreciated. I always welcome the challenge of your thought provocations.