This is my current take on the meaning of life. I worry about this a bit. Atheism, theism... deism; none really makes sense to me. They all have unanswered questions. I find it distinctly unfair that the truth of our existence be revealed to us only when it is finished.
I struggled with this question for a while and then traveling home from work I had a moment where I saw a way to turn the question around. I was asking what the meaning of 'something' is, I re-framed the question to ask what the actual meaning of the 'word' that represents the something.
I remembered someone once saying that we are, to an extent, limited in our cognitive processes to the words we have available. When we think, there comes a time that we must put words to our thoughts. In the same way that this provides an opportunity to communicate our thoughts to others, it also provides a certain solidness and framing of our ideas and beliefsfor our own selves. However, it also means that are thoughts become limited to the words we have available and the meanings those words possess.
So rather than fight this process, I tried to acknowledge, accept and use it positively. All our life we have been taught that words have meanings without losing the notion that words are representative of something greater than marks on a page. While we have dictionaries that offer consistency, the true meaning of a word is subtly different for each person. Particularly so for words that have concepts of value attached to them. By way of example, think of house as opposed to home. The words themselves represent concepts that we have developed throughout our lives. Sometimes these ideas get so big and mysterious that we forget that to find the meaning of the concept, the best place to start is with the meaning of the word.
What then is the meaning of life? http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/life ; http://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/life etc. The sum of and the essence of all of these notions of definitions is, according to this route, an inkling of what 'life' means in a generic sense. Thus, the essential element of life would be existence. And for many forms of life, the meaning of life is indeed to exist.
The next step is to individualise the meaning, and the first step on this path is to present the meaning of life as something that can be related to people specifically, as opposed to other forms of life. For example, the meaning of life for a person is different to the meaning of life for say a plant. Ideally, this involves taking the basic meaning of life and bring to it a conceptual framework that can be uniquely applied by everyone, based on their own experiences and development.
In moving from generic life to human life, what should be the distinguishing factor? The key for me is summed in the famous phrase: I doubt, therefore I am. I should probably argue this further, but for me, I think that the unique factor for humanity is an awareness of ourselves. While I am not sure how deeply this sense of self awareness is shared with our close primate relatives, I think it is suffice to say that it is the extent of our conscious awareness that is the differentiating point. If you accept this point, then we can make this same distinction apply not just to existence, but to the meaning of existence for humanity. Or to use the original question, the meaning of life.
And so I arrived at the mid point of my answer - that is, a meaning of life that could be for humans generally and a framework that could be applied to understand the meaning of life for the individual. It is the conclusion that the meaning of life is to be found in our awareness of our own existence.
The outworkings of this are numerous and, I think, fantastically liberating. For example, it is not about what we achieve, but our path towards what we do. Our desire to be meaningful is part of our meaning, but through being aware, recognising, accepting and then living in this awareness, we can gain meaning from it. Being able to feel things and experience things for what they are, the impact of our history our goals and motivations, all experienced in the now and our awareness of what it means to exist as a human means we are all fundamentally equal. No person's life is more meaningful than any others, for each can only be aware of their own life.
These broad concepts are shared, but the actual outworking is still intensely individual. What gives meaning is being me through the passage of time and living and not hiding from my experience of life. Emotions, positive and negative. Successes and failures. The need to repress, the desire to acknowledge and overcome our limitations. All this is part of the meaning of life. But there is not meaning in it, if you are not aware of it.
In summary then, the meaning of life is realised in the conscious awareness of your own self at each moment throughout the course of your life.
