I’d like to note that atheism isn’t a definitive answer to the meaning of the universe, rather it is a position that metaphysical religion does not contain the answer.

If I dismiss the notion that Santa Claus brings me presents on Christmas, it doesn’t mean I have the answer to who does, simply that through reduction a fat man flying at warp speed in a sleigh is not the answer. (I know the answer, this is just an example… it’s lawn gnomes, right?)

Science doesn’t claim answers, simply the best possibly current explanation given what we can currently disprove. Unfortunately, right now our best answers are speculative theories, but that doesn’t mean that an omnipotent male human deity did create the universe or give it meaning.

The search for meaning is an old pursuit, and ultimately it is up to us to define meaning in life as sentient beings, as animals don’t pursue meaning to their lives. Philosophy can help define this (see: Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus), yet it remains up to us to decide. Some choose a life of hedonism, others a life of experience (see also: Kierkegaard.)

The hardest part of being an atheist is that others try to treat it like a religion. It’s not. It’s a lack of religion, but not philosophy. We claim no answers just like agnostics, but we’re positive it wasn’t an omnipotent being whose goal was to create humans in a very backwater part of the Milky Way galaxy.

Note that some religions can be considered atheistic such as Taoism, Confucianism, and certain sects of Buddhism as they claim no metaphysical makes their religion the ‘right one.’