If there is no God or supernatural, then we are just "physical stuff", and life has no meaning! When I (or someone who holds to materialism) looks quizzically at a comment like that, and says "No meaning? You must be kidding, right?", the clarification is offered: no *ultimate* meaning. I think an instructive system to look at in looking at this complaint, the complaint that life has no meaning or less meaning if God does not exist to "give it meaning" (don't ask how that would work even if God does exist -- that's another thread), is our system of money, and valuation based on money. Does our money have "ultimate value"? Even if one looks at a "gold backed" currency, a money system where cash is indexed to an assigned amount of gold or other precious metal (or other precious resource), money has no "ultimate value". And yet, it has value. Practical, effective, broad-scaled value. It's the lifeblood of our economy, the mechanism that produces wealth, income, growth, distribution of resources, capital, labor, efficient marketplaces for connecting supply with demand. How can that be, if money has no "real" or "ultimate" value??? It's just paper, this $20 bill in my hand, after all (just like we as humans are "just chemicals", perhaps). What gives? Value is as valuation does. Meaning is as meaning intends. Money has value because it's useful and valuable that it does. And, as if by magic, but just by the simple process of desires giving rise to convention, money has value, value we will work for, by the sweat of our brow, and expect others to accept as the means of trade for buying what we need and desire. The connection, then is this: if you understand, and accept that money has value, real value in the practical sense, even though it has no "ultimate" value or "real" value in any cosmic sense, you have all the conceptual grounds you need to understand life as having real meaning in the most fundamental and practical sense, even and especially if life has no "ultimate" religious meaning once we posit that no God exists. Imagine telling your neighbor: That $20 bill has no *real* value! Why would you suppose it has value, or carry it around? If it's not issued in some ultimately authoritative sense, it's not valuable at all! He'd look at you like you are crazy: Hey, I can trade this thing for a case of Guinness beer down at the local market. And get some change back. There's value for you, mate! The theist who suggests that life does not have meaning in the absence of God is in this position. The currency of our lives is what we want it to be, and want we make it, individually, and collectively. Life is meaningful in God's absence (and especially so in that case!) because we have resources like time and energy to invest, and life is the means of investing it. We have ambitions, emotions, goals and instincts we are born with, and which we develop as part of our nature. We are social species, and together, these produce all the real, practical meaning that is to be had. Theists, do you suppose money, currency not backed by anything ultimate, has value?
A majority of this world since the rise of humanity has been control by some central religiously assembled focus. Perhaps the religion in the mass majority of Earth's human population contributes to this drive and emotion you speak of and is the reason different currencies have been passed down through the ages. Or perhaps it's just because people are smart enough to create an economy where items of equal value have equal pricing so that they can demand goods and have their needs met at a bargain. I think it is more of a way of living that gives value to money and the fact that it is just paper is a good point. Al though people trust in government too much and have faith in it, therefore - have faith in the dollar, or a piece of paper...
Great point, OP. People are normally short-sighted about everything, but when it comes to an afterlife or gods' existence then they get all "ultimate meaning" and philosophical on ya. Not surprising though since what's at stake is their own post-death existence. "Of course there's something behind the curtain, because if there isn't, then what?" That question mark is too much for people to bear. The idea that there is no final justice after this life seems unfair, but thinking about the universe in terms of fairness or meaning reveals just how much we attribute our own characteristics to the universe. Meaning, value, and concepts in general are tools, and we would do well to remember it when we think about death.
We give life meaning regardless of god or no god. If we knew for a fact that there was a god, who even appeared to us and whatnot, but I gave no meaning to my life or found no meaning in my life, there would be no meaning in my life, regardless of the fact that there actually would be a greater meaning. Anyone can give their life any kind of meaning. I can think that I am the coolest person in the world and that it is my job to save the world. This isn't the case, but if I believe it or think it is true then I give myself this meaning in life. This becomes the meaning in my life regardless of its truth...
a purpose or meaning could be as little, as to just having food for energy. we are chemicals yes but admit it we ALSO have charisma. we are our own gods. gods at practicing activities. getting better over time (hopefully) love, happiness, spread love is what its about at this point, with holy wars and all god is pure love, non judgmental and ego-less infinite source energy come on, there has to be a source, right the V big bang
I kind of disagree with the statement, "if there's no god or supernatural then we're just physical stuff". I myself am a materialist. I do not think that materialism, or even physicalism necessarily excludes metaphysics, and I'm not sure if materialism on it's own can even function without metaphysics. That's not to say that God exists or anything like that, and I certainly don't think, personally, that meaning is derived from his existence or non-existence, but he's kinda in a category w/ other non-physical entities which makes him easy to criticize but hard to refute.
you give life meaning because, your an intelligent observer. the chemicals are they to react, to mess with things. the charisma is the god in us all, our ego, our souls it chemistry with charisma, science and source the 'source' infinite energy, timeless, when your die, just like it born, banged, same difference. gogogogo