Atheists: What Gives Your Life Meaning

[Quaxotic]

I was reading the Atheist Experience blog and they had some short videos of the hosts about what gives their lives meaning.

Bat Cruise weekend, A Better Life, and episode #780 open thread | The Atheist Experience

Since this is one thing that a lot of theists don't think we can have without some form of god i thought it would be nice to get everyone to talk about it.

As for myself i find meaning in two places.

The first is my studies and my future career. I am doing a bachelor of applied social sciences. So basically it's counselling and psychology. This is a massive source of meaning for me. What higher purpose is their in life than striving to help those that need it. My most fervent hope is that when i die i will have left the world a better place than what it was when i was born.

The second source of meaning in my life is intellectual curiosity. The world around me is fascinating. I am always looking stuff up on wikipedia, sometimes i spend hours just going from one wiki page to another. I downloaded an app for my phone so i can quickly and easily access wikipedia no matter where i am. And it gets used almost every day.

I agree with Martin Wagner (from the Atheist Experience) that it would be horrible to wake up one day and think "i know everything i need to know". I think life would not be worth living if there wasn't something to pique my curiosity.

So please share with us what gives your life meaning or what you think you could do to give it more meaning.

Thanks,

-Quaxotic

[jarofthoughts]

I would have to agree with you on both points.
I love to learn new things, and a lot of my time is spent reading and studying.
Combine this with my love for teaching, and it seems I have found the perfect profession for me,
seeing as I am an elementary school teacher.
Of course, I also find meaning in all the things everyone else finds meaning in, family, friends,
and so on, but mostly I just feel lucky to be here and being able to experience all of this.

[Quaxotic]

Teaching is a noble profession.

[lunakilo]

I just looked out the window at my children playing as the sun is setting.
My daughter came in about half an hour ago saying she was cold and needed a pair of gloves, so I gave her a pair. I just noticed that she is now wearing gloves but no jacket, it made me smile (sigh! she will get a cold tomorrow or maybe even get sick. But right now she is happy)
I think that and situations like this is the meaning of life.

I also find meaning in trying to learn about the world around me and understand how it works. I usually fail, but sometimes I kind of feel I understand something, and that is a good feeling.

I love it when my children ask me something and I can actually give them a sensible answer.
I love it when I make something and people seem to like using it.
It means my work was not in vain.

I sometimes feel like a little ant running around doing stuff that nobody will probably ever notice if they look at the big picture, but I convience myself that the anthill is a little better off because of what I have done, and once I leave this world to my children and all those other little ants who are running around in, it will hopefully be in better shape because of my work.
That makes sense to me.

[Iti oj]

people, nature, music, books, learning. etc

[Sunstone]

Friends, family, and work, followed closely by burning holy texts and watching orphans cry.

[Penumbra]

Originally Posted by Quaxotic

I was reading the Atheist Experience blog and they had some short videos of the hosts about what gives their lives meaning.

Bat Cruise weekend, A Better Life, and episode #780 open thread | The Atheist Experience

Since this is one thing that a lot of theists don't think we can have without some form of god i thought it would be nice to get everyone to talk about it.

As for myself i find meaning in two places.

The first is my studies and my future career. I am doing a bachelor of applied social sciences. So basically it's counselling and psychology. This is a massive source of meaning for me. What higher purpose is their in life than striving to help those that need it. My most fervent hope is that when i die i will have left the world a better place than what it was when i was born.

The second source of meaning in my life is intellectual curiosity. The world around me is fascinating. I am always looking stuff up on wikipedia, sometimes i spend hours just going from one wiki page to another. I downloaded an app for my phone so i can quickly and easily access wikipedia no matter where i am. And it gets used almost every day.

I agree with Martin Wagner (from the Atheist Experience) that it would be horrible to wake up one day and think "i know everything i need to know". I think life would not be worth living if there wasn't something to pique my curiosity.

So please share with us what gives your life meaning or what you think you could do to give it more meaning.

Thanks,

-Quaxotic

Actually I mostly just poke around and do things without meaning.

Seems more interesting that way.

I make goals and stuff, but they're based on my family upbringing and prior experience about what's "good".

[Badran]

I think the meaning of life is simply the very fact that we're here, doing and experiencing a very wide set of things.

At least, that's the only way i can think of the question to make sense of it, and to be distinct from the question of the purpose of life.

[Odi Brassicum]

Does life have to have a meaning? Who says? What if I don't want my life to have a meaning? Could I live a happy, fulfilling life, being kind to everyone I meet without a having a meaning?

[Revoltingest]

I provide my own meaning.
(Scary, eh?)