1. What does atheism say about the purpose (or the meaning) of life?

Comment #174694 by Nichon on May 3, 2008 at 9:18 am

Atheism is the belief that a god did not create the universe,
its belief that there is no all knowing being that cares about what you do, who you have sex with and whether or not you curse that often.

What does atheism say about the purpose of life?

I would say that the purpose of life is to explore the natural world, to explore and understand why we are here and not have blind faith in 2000 year old Bronze Age books. The true beauty and poetry of life is the physical laws that govern the world.
Is a rainbow suddenly less meaningless when you know it's a refraction of light in water droplets? Is love any less real to the person when they understand it's a biological condition? Is cancer any more painful to the patient and any less a scourge on your body when you know it rises as a genetic defect and not from some divine punishment? The meaning of life is unclear, but if you're looking to atheism to tell you your place in the universe you're going to get a surprise.
The earth is 4.4 billion years old, and you are most are about 100 years old. The earth is not the center of the universe, in the fact it's the third small rock from a pretty regular looking star. The meaning of life is that we are a part of this universe; we play a role in it. But we are not the stars of this show. Our civilizations rise and fall in the blinks of time, amounting to mere nothing. Zeus and Thor as might as they were to the people at the time are now Disney movies. Islam once conquered half the known world but now lies mired in the past.
Religion seems unable to cope with a modern reality that proves to us though the scientific method that we are not the center of the world or the universe or any grand system. Atheism says there is more to life than what we know and that we can use our tools of reasoning and science to come to understand our world around us. Religion and blind faith says we know everything already, and that by closing our eyes and ignoring though purposeful ignorance we can somehow become the most important thing in this world.