The meaning of life is to seek and love the meaning of life as you discover and define it.
I was an atheist for 15 years at the beginning of life. I have been studying religion philosophy spirituality consciousness for more than 15 years. Even if you’re an atheist there still has to be a meaning of life for you it doesn’t have to be God or religion based. Science is a wonderful thing that can help us understand how life works even down to the subatomic level so I’m sure for atheists that are also astrophysicists or quantum theorists, That their meaning of life is to understand life which is what they enjoy which is what makes them happy and it also contributes to our society.
On the other end of the spectrum you have the Abrahamic religions, And the catechism of the Catholic Church defines the meaning of life on its first page, to seek and love God. And I just want to say that the term paganism is a load of crap. If you look at One of the oldest religions on earth that’s still around today that would be Hinduism, which I have studied in depth for years and is part of the culture Of where my parents are from, most people including some Indian people practice it and believe that it is a pagan religion which it is not. Each of the different gods are simply different aspects of one God and this is the true deeper teaching of Hinduism, and from what I’ve seen, This goes for all the other religions and ways of life throughout the world that have been falsely labeled pagan.
As humanity grows and evolves certain institutions of social control will no longer be needed. Sadly the great things that were taught by great teachers have been used by religion for some bad stuff.
happiness isn’t truly experienced unless it is shared. Shared with others and with life itself. and that involves seeking and discovery. This involves stepping outside of yourself, outside of your ego. And ego here I’ll define as identification with form. And that means the subtler forms of thoughts and emotions. If you learn not to act on your thoughts and your emotions then you’ll find an underlying observer and flow within you and in life. Each of us is the universe that wanted to be aware of itself and thus created the means To meet its self in you, and us in each other. And that’s love.