It just is. I'm just is. One day l won't be.

"Meaning" isn't part of my consciousness. I don't "find" it, because I'm not
looking for it. I do not suffer from existential angst.

I don't need "meaning".

In Korea once. His name was Meaning and he taught English to Korea kids. That dude could down soju like it was Budweiser...you know because Budweiser is water. Anyhow, the guy had a beard when beards weren't as hip. I think that was a sign of some sort.

Not knowing much or anything about God and not understanding who or what I am is baffling in the extreme. My only experience is through conscious awareness and I don’t understand that one bit. Hell, I don’t understand the concept of existence—according to modern physics theories there are no things, space comes in quanta, and time doesn’t exist.

After all is said and done, the implications of the mystery of existence are staggering in the extreme and valuable beyond value.

I don't agree. I have meaning. I work diligently to make the lives of others better. I find fulfillment in my work. I don't have to believe in an afterlife to find meaning in this one. I love life. I also love people. And yes I know there is one life to live and do try to make the most of every day. Just because I'm an atheist doesn't mean there is no meaning. I know my life is better because I have meaning and purpose.

I don't know that life has some great meaning. I make mine meaningful to me and that is all I can do.

What gives your life meaning? Do good work, help others. You have to find your purpose yourself.

Meaning, for me, comes in the little things and the connections I make with others. It comes from what I decide. Nothing has any intrinsic value or meaning until I assign it one. However, it often gets assigned meaning almost automatically. And I need to be more careful about that.

I find meaning in ethics, being as kind and respectful as I can toward others. This is what makes me happy.

Where do I find meaning? In the dictionary, of course. ???

At farm fresh two years ago , a young boy came behind me and touched me on my hip to get my attention . I did not recognized him . He told me his name was A .... and " u r the lady w funny accent who gave me medicine and saved my life remember me , I remember u , do the monkey again ! " I seen his mother standing by smiling . Unfortunately , still did not remeber , but I pretend I did . So many people every night . The kid has asthma crisis from what mom explained . He told me he plays basketball now . He said " thank u lady , I love u ". I cried . I felt like a million bucks , whatever that means in America , I felt the most important life in this plannet . I did my famous monkey impression as well , right there at candy alley too . That's the meaning of life as far as I care . Rest , I give two rats behinds about . Is that makes sense ?

Meaning gets used in too many ways for this topic to make much sense. It seems the "new atheist" answer you give is using it as a synonym for value. Fair enough. Most of us think life has value, though we do come at the quesiton from a rather biased perspective. But taken literally, life doesn't "mean" anything. It's not symbolic. It just is. The religous individuals you imagine in your question are using it to mean "purpose". As in what's the purpose of life? Well, if you mean purpose as a synonym for goal then- the purpose of life is to make more life. That is, to exist in a fashion that gives your genes the maximum chance to exist in the future. If you mean purpose as is "reason" then we're back to your starting point - there's no purpose, no reason. Or do you mean something else?

Not looking for meaning. Don't need a greater purpose.

Believers have to cope with an indifferent universe with no guarantees or special favors or privileges, just like the rest of us. It's just that they spend a lot of their life force concocting elaborate circumlocutions around the fact that their life unfolds exactly the same as if they were unbelievers.

The only difference between me and my former self was that I got tired of making excuses and admitted to myself that my lived experience was totally inconsistent with the Christian model of reality and I needed to find a better way to explain and predict my experiences. I eventually found it in critical / rational thinking, science and logic.

So it's Christians who have to experience the real "vacuum". And it sucks.

My life has all the purpose I require to get out of bed and put my pants on day after day. God is not only dead, he's overkill. I wrote some cool code today that captures and classifies email addresses and tomorrow I'll write some cool code to validate them in more detail and ping each address to see if it's alive or not. And I'll get paid good money for that work. I made my walking goal of 10,000 steps for the second day in a row, in perfect walking weather. I had a nice phone call with my oldest surviving brother, made some plans for my oldest grandson's visit next month, discussed whether it's time for a new washer and dryer with my wife, stayed inside my diet constraints without feeling too deprived, and remembered to take out the garbage. What more meaning do I need than that?

The problem most people have with meaning is they think it has to be some grandiose thing where they put up a statue of you in the town square when you die or its modern equivalent, you get fawning documentaries made about your life and work. Whereas by definition such things only happen to a few very extraordinary (and extraordinarily lucky) people. Tonight my wife and I watched such an opus about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and guess what, for all her accomplishments, her mother died of cancer before she graduated from high school, her husband nearly died of cancer early in their marriage, obliging her to nurse him, while going to law school and raising an infant only to find upon graduation that no one in all of New York City would hire her, simply because she was a woman; her husband later preceded her in death and she has had cancer herself twice since. What meaning is there in any of that chaotic shit? Not much. So that's the other side of the story, no one's life goes perfectly easy for them, and they have to find meaning in spite of that. And people do it every day, without relying on supernatural beings and empty promises of immortality and other forms of largesse and special treatment.

Life is only meaningful to the individual for as long as they can remember it - after they die - not so much. If you're talking about legacy - that is up to our kids and their descendants with the hopes that none turn out to be a serial killer. Though even that has meaning because they came from us - though I would have died a long time ago and likely didn't give it much thought before I died. We live because we do and we die because we do - Dung Beetles have sex - it's not anymore complicated than that. "Meaning" is something you pulled out of an orifice - it's a meaningless concept.

My children have become the focal meaning of my life. Specifically my youngest son. I do have my own life but what i have to share and pass on will most notably pass through my aon that I jave the grwates impact on his life.

No there is no fundamental purpose, we are just machines that our genes built so they are protected and multiplied, and they do it just because the ones that did could replicate, so it is a kind of random stuff.
BUT
We are intelligent, and we have conscience, so we can interact with the few meters around us, and have fun, pleasure, pain, sadness, desire.
For the universe it does not matter if you became a serial torturer and killer or a catholic saint, you are free to do it.
For the same evolutionary mechanism the societies that focused on a minimal level of cooperation worked and flourished, the civil rights era where we are now is the apex of that (and probably it will evolve more).
So the objective I choose for myself is primarily to live a good life and secondary, to live behind me a better world than I received, this includes improve my community, educate my kids (when I get some), Advance science etc.

The dictionary usually after each word ....

I do not find meaning. A person makes or creates their own meaning as they go along.

The meaning of life is found everywhere, but life is the reason for life. It seeks to perpetuate itself, but that seeking is mechanical. The meaning, on the other hand, is self generated to varying degrees in the different species that make up the biosphere. I am reasonably certain that a bacterium finds no meaning in life and quite probably doesn't care in the least.

Humans, being one of the more complex forms of life, search constantly for meaning. For whatever reason, they tend to think there must be meaning to it all. Frequently, they invent meaning for themselves, then attempt to force their interpretation of meaning on all the others. They call that religion --- or government --- or both.

Life does not come with meaning and/or purpose. Not all people create their own meaning and/or purpose, some just live and then die, and some are very happy with the ride.

Personally I think that I need to create something significant that alters the way humans process information for the better and that is my purpose because I don't know of anyone else who is trying.

Dictionary!

Tis an interesting question to which many people will offer their opinion. Personally, I think that when I am engaged in some activity that provides an opportunity to learn and progress then I am doing something meaningful.. If you are looking for an answer to your question in some book then I think that you will inevitably be disappointed.

Why does there have to be meaning? It just is.

The meaning I have found is knowing I'm free from the bs of religion/god. I have accepted that there is nothing after death and live life to the fullest.