In 1942, my Grandfather and two of his friends went to an Army recruiting station to sign up. The three of them were all members of a local pilot's club; having a private pilot's license in those days was pretty rare.

His two friends ended up in the Army Air Corp (the precursor to today's Air Force), but during the physical, my Grandfather was determined to be underweight for being a pilot and ended up in the regular Army, driving a tank in North Africa. His two friends got shot down over Europe and were both killed. My Grandfather survived. He married my grandmother and sired my uncle and mother, who at age 24 gave birth to me.

So it's easy to see that my existence stems from a series of random and chance events, one in particular: my Grandfather was denied being a pilot in WWII.

We are given no choice in our creation. There's no evidence that any deliberate factor or factors were involved. This implies that there's no ultimate and intrinsic purpose to life. Religion attempts to counter this by proposing a god or gods that imbue life with meaning. Others propose that we must give meaning to our life. Self-interest drives us to strive for happiness through the elimination of pain, both physical and emotional.

How much does biology drive behavior? All humans act in their own self-interest, which can be summed up as a desire to avoid pain and enhance pleasure. This is not to imply that we always do what is best. The human proclivity for self-destructive behavior is evident, where pursuit of pleasure overcomes the survival instinct.

Is there some higher influence on cosmic events that gives our life purpose or meaning? And even if there is, if this influence isn't not perceptible, can we even say it exists? Was there a meaning and purpose to my life before I came into existence? Where will my meaning go after my death?

Rather than search for externally imposed meaning to our existence, we must create that meaning ourselves by taking responsibility for the way we see the world. We can view it as wonderful or awful. The decision is up to you.