How do you find meaning as an atheist?

[KichigaiNeko]

You ALMOST FORGOT!

[Esquilax]

I've always found it odd that people ask this question at all. Why can't the fact that I can derive happiness from things in my life be enough of a meaning for my life? Why do I need to justify it beyond the fact that I enjoy being alive?

I love to write, I love to cook, I love books and argument and science and robots, I love my family and I love my fiancee... what else do I need, honestly?

Not all purposes in life need to be incredibly significant or world altering. The human race has gone for hundred of years full of regular people with small, but no less significant for being so, joys in their lives. Hell, I don't even think theists believe that god is required for any form of meaningful purpose, it's just that their holy book demands it. I have no doubt they find plenty of purpose, just the same as we atheists.

God's just... unnecessary.

[Zen Badger]

I've always found it odd that people ask this question at all. Why can't the fact that I can derive happiness from things in my life be enough of a meaning for my life? Why do I need to justify it beyond the fact that I enjoy being alive?

I love to write, I love to cook, I love books and argument and science and robots, I love my family and I love my fiancee... what else do I need, honestly?

Not all purposes in life need to be incredibly significant or world altering. The human race has gone for hundred of years full of regular people with small, but no less significant for being so, joys in their lives. Hell, I don't even think theists believe that god is required for any form of meaningful purpose, it's just that their holy book demands it. I have no doubt they find plenty of purpose, just the same as we atheists.

God's just... unnecessary.

I am always amused by the theists accusations that we have no meaning in our lives without god.

Yet according to the Big Book of Silly Stories( AKA the bible) the reason god made us is to worship him constantly for the rest of eternity. This is finding meaning in your life?

[Gilgamesh]

Find a passion. Form relationships.

Meaning.

[KichigaiNeko]

Certainly Gil. I find the concept of being a sniveling, sycophant of a slave rather demeaning of deity and human alike.

[Faith No More]

As I mentioned in a separate thread, I'm quite surprised to find that so many of you see no potential meaning in life at all. But anyway I said I would explain how I find meaning, so here goes.

The way I find meaning in life is to avoid the use of analytic thinking in that area and instead utilize more subjective and emotionally-informed ways of thinking. I don't see this as a lack of reason, because rationally I know that having a sure direction is something that I personally crave, and that depends on a well-developed sense of meaning in my own life. Without that meaning, I can't operate. A "lack" of reason would imply that the area is deficient in rational thinking when in reality I think there is just enough, any more and it would be too much.

Yes. Too much reason, there is such a thing.

This sounds suspiciously like a theistic argument. I'm not saying you're secretly trying to push that, but you're advocating the same "look to your feelings" thought process.

I don't see why you feel the need to avoid too much reasoning to find meaning. Sure, emotions are ultimately what dictate the meaning we find, but not because we use them to determine what makes life meaningful. No, we discover what gives us meaning by understanding what gives us emotional pleasure, and that understanding comes through reason.

[jonb]

Meaning
Here I am in the desert, thirsty and looking for water, sure I could give up and sit in a mirage and pretend water is spiritual and is all around me, or I could accept the mirage is an illusion and carry on looking. Sure I might never find an oasis, but if I do not look for real water I will definitely not find it.

[Cinjin]

I'm curious, how do other atheists find meaning in their life? I'm not talking about "purpose", that's something entirely different. What I'm talking about is the sense of a definite direction or duty to a person or thing. How do you find that in your life? What gives you that sense of meaning?

I always find this question to be a little loaded. It always seems that the person asking is doing more than just asking the question. They're always kind of implying that I need meaning and that I should have meaning in my life. Usually, like Jonb eluded at, the answer that I come up with is often not good enough, or somehow I cannot be as fulfilled in life as they are because they have it "figured out."

In fact I can nearly guarantee that if my answer isn't the EXACT same as the person asking the question, it will be discounted as being inadequate. As if the meaning in my life isn't satisfactory to the hocus pocus gods of meaning and purpose that float around us in an energy field of fuzzy happiness.

If you really want to know about meaning in life, go see a christard. Those insecure buffoons "KNOW" what gives meaning in life and they aren't afraid to tell you how wrong you are.

[Norfolk And Chance]

I'm curious, how do other atheists find meaning in their life? I'm not talking about "purpose", that's something entirely different. What I'm talking about is the sense of a definite direction or duty to a person or thing. How do you find that in your life? What gives you that sense of meaning?

I won't share what does that for me until later on. I want to hear from you guys first.

Please define "purpose".

Please define "meaning".

Because I don't know what the difference is between the two, all I know is that you claim that they're different things.

[dj-hato]

its simple really
i live for a finite time and the rest moves on long after i pass and i wish to make this world a better place for my children and there children
that is also the reason why i choose to start my education as a biology teacher
its is my hope that i can inspire the next generation to join the ranks in the great minds of the future or just make them curious enough to pursue a career in academics

my limited time on this planet my singular existence is what drives me
if i believed my after life i would focus on how I live my life so that i pass on to eternity
but i don`t want just for me to have a good life because i just inhabit this tiny blink of existence in this grand time scale of the cosmos
and that cosmos , this planet with all its people moves on where i have long passed
it would be egocentric to make just my blink better when i can start a ripple of inspiration in the ocean of time and space that could help the population in a whole

and that is my meaning without god