The Meaning of Life

Does life really have meaning? This was the question that I had in mind as I grew up while I was learning many things in life. I had just lost my religion and my beliefs along with it. It was a feeling of being empty and asking: what do I do now? For all I know, my life had been revolving on being a good person and living up to the scriptures. Growing up and learning many things opened my mind. My professor say that to be able to strengthen your belief you must question it. In the process of questioning your belief, you will be challenged to strengthen or lose your beliefs. I got the latter. Being an atheist opened me to a lot of things and it also has alienated me from people that I know. I still understand how they see things and how they feel about happenings in their lives. I only have a different perspective about it.

What does this have to do with the meaning of life? I realized that when I was still religious the meaning of life for me was to get back to a god, do good things, serve him and enjoy the afterlife. In atheism, there is no afterlife and no god, you get to choose your fate and not depend it to a divine being, you depend on empathy to do good things and not on divine punishment and that you only have one life so you should cherish every moment dearly because when you die you will again come back to the energy of earth.

Life's meaning doesn't depend on a belief because we are the ones who make a meaning out of it. Life came from nothing, we can all agree with that so it is understandable that its meaning will also come from what we seek. It has no religion and no boundaries because we are the ones who make a meaning for it.