What is the meaning of life? Surely by now the question itself no longer has meaning. Well, it really doesn't have any more meaning than life itself does. A better way to form that, albeit still no more credible of a question, would be "what is the meaning of human life", since that is really what people are asking. We are an extremely self-centered species and believe everything that happens to us, especially individually, is somehow significant. To ask what the meaning of life is only serves to waste breath. To ask for the "meaning" of life insinuates a predetermined meaning, or purpose, or destination for life that was laid out prior to or at the moment of its beginning. It also assumes not only that we are somehow significantly important but that a supernatural being must exist in order to bestow such "meaning" onto human existence.

 To ask the meaning or purpose behind such a thing as the existence of life is a dead-end, nonintellectual question. We can ask what led to life arising on Earth, however, and how life evolved from its primordial form into the current species extant on the planet today as well as ask questions about our own specific evolutionary lineage. These are feasible questions, A meaning, though? There simply is no reason to believe there is one. I also fail to see how this is disappointing, unless a person chooses to stop there and fall into a depressed view of life because of it. To assume a meaning to life is to assume a creator who has created a preexisting plan for life as a whole and, if religious, a plan for us individually. This is not nearly as freeing or inspiring as reality because this assumption means that there is a plan for you: a predetermined destination that you will end up at. Does this not imply a lack of free will? Just because there is not a greater being who somehow determined the purpose of our existence does not however mean our lives don't have meaning. We know that our lives have meaning in relation to one another and the world, but that meaning does not need to be bestowed unto us by a supernatural sky daddy. We give our own lives meaning, and we decide each morning what we want to live for.

 I was asked during a late-night conversation in my dorm room how, as someone who does not believe any god/s exist, I find meaning in my life. My initial reply was a question: "How does religion give your life meaning?" Then after a pause of silence, I explained my genuine view on the topic. I told my friend that I wake up every single morning and decide what my life's meaning is and will to be. I decide what I want to be, how I want to impact the world and others around me, and how I am going to make myself happy. I wake up and I give my own life meaning, just as you do. It is extremely simple, really, yet also very inspiring I think. We have only one life to live, and rather than deny that and comfort myself with stories of an after life, I accept the reality and use it as motivation to live my life in the way I want to. I don't remember what I was doing in the moment when I had actually stopped denying I had no belief in an afterlife and not only recognized the fact of our simple existence, but accepted it. However, I will never forget the feeling of the moment, which is recreated every time I take the time to think and remind myself that there is nothing after this. It was bliss, and my life has not been the same since then. I have not made any drastic changes as you might be imagining (I haven't gone sky diving or hiked the Appalachian Trail or anything particularly "exciting"), but my outlook on the world was changed and the inspiration I feel from the natural world and the universe was increased tremendously. The way I determine which decision to make has changed. My view of my own future is different and I recognize that I don't want to live a life were I just aspire to meet modern societal standards of what is "successful" but rather want to live a happy life. I will learn and feed my curiosity, love, teach, and appreciate.
I realized a lot of what motivates me to learn biology and other sciences is not to prepare me for any type of career but simply to fuel appreciation. To fuel my curiosity. I learn to learn and I love it. I haven't the slightest idea what I wish to be when I am older, during the years between university and becoming a teacher that is. I just want to learn and the more I learn, the greater the bewilderment I feel when letting my gaze remain fixated on the veins of a leaf, or the ant hiking up its underside, or the spider methodically spinning its web. Appreciation is a big part of what fuels my desire to learn. I want to learn in order to appreciate more deeply.