There is a guy on TV, a self-proclaimed voice of God, who says (almost every night) that the Good Lord is going to grant us "eternal life" if we behave good. How would this miracle happen? I often ask myself. There are other religions that assert that our essence, whatever it is and wherever it is, has always existed and will always exist, I presume, forever. According to this, whether we behave good or bad, whatever good or bad are, we already have an eternal essence. In Western countries it is believed that we began to exist with our birth, and obviously die with our death. Modern science even denies that we exist, that we are nothing more than an abstraction. Therefore, if the voice of God on earth is right, somehow something that is not eternal will live forever. If Eastern beliefs are right, no matter what we do, we always existed, and will exist (as long as this Universe exists I guess). And if finally science is right, nothing already exists and then nothing dies.
We created the Good Lord, the Good Lord didn't create us. Religion is so obsolete that people don't see that we give God meaning, because if we don't exist, his show would be over. It's not God giving us meaning, it is exactly the opposite.
Whether there is meaning in life without God, or if we are just a product of our brain cells, I may ask: is there any meaning in life, being us just an emergent property of matter? I couldn't answer right now. It is a matter of belief. Just recently Roger Penrose has said that there is evidence of a pre-Big Bang Universe. If that is true, I would agree that life has no meaning. But the door is still open.
Before the Boom - NYTimes.com
Rings in Sky Leave Alternate Cosmic Visions - NYTimes.com