What is the meaning of life for an atheist?

A common mistake that people make about atheists is that we have no meaning in our lives because we do not believe in a god. Also, there are some atheists that outright say that life has no actual meaning. I would say that the life of all people has some meaning, whether they admit to it or not. Meaning is created by conscious creatures, it does not exist objectively, but it does exist subjectively. For example, the Declaration of Independence is really just a piece of hemp paper. What makes the Declaration of Independence have value is the meaning we assign to it. Would anyone actually claim that the Declaration of Independence is meaningless? If so, they shouldn't be taken seriously, but that is neither here nor there.

The point here is that the atheist life does have meaning. In fact, I would go so far as to claim that an atheist life is capable of being more meaningful than the life of a theist. A theist believes that humans are mere pawns in a chess match between good and evil. What kind of meaning is that? That humans are essentially entertainment for a god? I believe an atheist worldview can be more meaningful because it is not limited. If we look at the worldviews of the different types of theists, they all seem to attempt to reduce life's meaningfulness. For example, Christians believe they are born as wretched sinners, and are destined for hell unless they lower their life's meaningfulness to the point of being a mere tool for God. Either way, the meaning of life is what we make it. If an atheist claims that life has no meaning, ask him/her what motivates them to live? There you will have an answer. Most people claim that the meaning of life is to be happy, and this I believe gets at the heart of the true meaning of life. 

An Atheist's Life Has No Meaning?

The argument that an atheist's life has no meaning is often brought up. While whether or not life has meaning is meaningless in the debate for whether a god exists or not, that is not what is going to be discussed in this blog post.

Of course I cannot speak for all atheists, but from my perspective, my life has meaning. It should be no argument that meaning is created by conscious beings (even a god would be considered that). As humans, we seek to understand, it is our niche. The problem here is that there are certain mysteries that cannot truly be understood, and this is disturbing to some individuals that desire a  purely logical world. Ignorance motivates some individuals to learn, and it motivates others to make up fantasies that "feel good" and  provide a false-sense of purpose (typically to serve God). The only meaning of life a person can grasp comes from the self and those around them.

As an atheist, I believe even those atheists that claim life doesn't have meaning, are ignoring the meaning of their life for the sake of arguing religion. Many atheists even argue that things like color are not real, and this is a reflection that many atheists ignore the reality of subjective experience, and ignore their own individuality. For some atheists, all that is real must exist objectively, and unfortunately for such atheists, objectivity is only viewable through the lens of subjectivity. Not too stray too far off discussing the meaning of life, those that cannot appreciate the life they have will have a difficult time finding purpose and meaning in it. The meaning I find in life (people find other meaning, obviously), is to understand the processes that got me here, and to enjoy the ride (I'm continuing to contemplate my meaning, so that my answer can be more complete).

This is one area that many atheists fail in the debate with believers, they are often unable to give a serious answer with any emotion (great passion should always exist for an individual when contemplating the meaning of life, and I fail here to). When I see atheists give an answer for what they feel the meaning of life is, they typically do it sarcastically, or with no emotion (like they have given the meaning of their own existence little to no thought). Humans can find meaning in anything they desire, meaning itself is not a factual thing (which is another reason atheists have a hard time contemplating the meaning/purpose of life). In-fact many hard-core atheists try to avoid emotional thinking completely, and view emotion as a sign of intellectual weakness. But even those atheists that will not admit to meaning in life have some meaning that they refuse to admit (family, friends, enjoying hobbies, etc.).

One thing I want to avoid is to say that life has a definite meaning, I believe that the meaning of life should be up to the individual's interpretation. While many atheists believe that life is meaningless, this appears to be in contradiction with other beliefs; those that truly believe life has no meaning will quickly find the nearest bridge. In other words, most of those that claim that life has no meaning secretly find meaning in being melodramatic attention whores. Atheists, like in the field of morality,  need to put more of an effort into finding meaning in life. Meaning in life is one area believers are able to hold over the heads of atheists; it is not because their arguments are compelling, it is just because atheists have no good answer. If we want to make atheism more respectable and appealing of a position, morality and meaning in life need to be addressed in a more aggressive manner, instead of being ran away from with false-concepts like relativity, etc.