Question

what is the meaning of life ?

Answer 1

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the entropy of a closed system such as the universe increases to the point where equilibrium is attained, and the purpose of God in creating us, and indeed all of nature, could not have been more elevating or uplifting than catalyzing this process in the same way that soil organisms catalyze the decomposition of organic matter.

If our God-given intent is to serve as super-efficient heat dissipators, then having no aim at all is better than having that kind of mission because it frees us to be the writers of our intention or intent, and thus live a genuinely dignified and meaningful existence.

In short, even if God exists, and even if He had a smart reason in making us, we don't know what that reason might be, and whatever it might be, we'd rather be able to live without it, or at least ignore or dismiss it. For unless we can be free to become the writers of our own intent or intention, our lives can have, at worst, no meaning at all and, at best, only some unfathomable and potentially meaningless intent which is not our own option.

It's not at all clear that any kind of eternal afterlife that involves the survival of the personal ego exists, or even can be. Even if there may be and will be such an afterlife, living for ever is not a reason in itself. The afterlife concept merely displaces the problem to one remove If the afterlife has a predetermined purpose, again, we don't know it is, and whatever it is, we'd rather be able to do it without it. Not only does reliance on an everlasting afterlife delay the issue of the nature of life, but it also dissuades or at least discourages us from deciding a reason or intention for what is the only life we have.

Human life may not have been created for any predetermined intent, but this does not have to mean that it can not have a meaning, or that it can not be just as good as, if not even better than, any predetermined one.

And so the meaning of creation, of our culture, is what we chose to give it.
Significance can be identified by: observing nature through honest contact with the world and others.
To give something back to the world through imagination and self-expression, and to change our mindset in the face of a situation or circumstance we can not change.