true life,,,

The same is true of life; it only makes sense to ask "What is the meaning of life?" if we believe that life was created for a reason. If life simply evolved on Earth by accident, if we just happen to be here, then life cannot have any meaning. Life can only have meaning if it was created for a purpose. If there is no Creator, then there can be no meaning of life.

Of course, people can try to find meaning in life without believing in a Creator. We can set ourselves goals—wealth, fame, helping others—and decide to devote our lives to achieving them. If we do this, then in some sense our lives seem to become about achieving wealth, or fame, or whatever, to take on that meaning. It seems possible to impose meaning on life through our own decisions and desires.

Indeed, most people who ask "What is the meaning of life?" really mean something like "What goals should we set ourselves?"

There is a misunderstanding here, however; meaning cannot be imposed on life through our decisions and desires. The attempt to impose meaning on a life that would otherwise be devoid of meaning fails

Either life has intrinsic meaning, or it doesn't.

If life has intrinsic meaning, then the goals have already been set and there is nothing we can do to change them.

If life doesn't have intrinsic meaning, then setting ourselves goals doesn't get us any closer to fulfilling our purpose, because there is no purpose for us to fulfil. If there is no ultimate aim to life, then there are no better or worse goals that we could set ourselves; deciding to pursue wealth would add meaning to our lives just as well as deciding to pursue happiness, and neither would add meaning to life any more than a deciding to collect bus-tickets, or to pursue melancholy, or to commit as many acts of petty violence as possible. The answer to the question "What is the meaning of life?" is "There isn’t one; it doesn’t matter what you do." If life starts off meaningless, then it must end up meaningless.