Does life have a meaning?

This question is almost a result of excessive "far-mode" thinking. Take a fragment of our lives, when we're caught up in the moment, and it's obvious our life is meaningful and purposeful. We want to win the game we're playing, grill the sausages on the BBQ, throw the stick into the waves for the dog, etc. It's only when we take the big - arguably the biggest - picture view and spookingly try to grasp who we are in 3rd person, that the things that seem concrete deconstruct into surreal abstractions.

I think it's healthy to contemplate a big-picture view ocassionally - it can help us gain perspective and give us a valuable course-correction (e.g. this comb-over isn't fooling anyone). But I don't think it's healthy to dwell in that space for too long - it's not what our cognitive machinery is optimized for - it evolved to make sense of much more immediate concerns. Excessive contemplation inevitably leads to existential angst, which if left untreated, will metastasize into a religious conversion or the adoption of a philosophical framework.

I'm not sure if "Does life have a meaning?" has a meaning. As with many deep-sounding philosophical questions, this one quickly dissolves when you notice that "meaning" is just not something that the universe does. Imagine the universe before any life formed, anywhere. Who is there to give meaning to anything? What's the meaning of a star or a galaxy or a black hole? I wouldn't even say there's no meaning; I'd say it's a wrong question. (Of course, I'm working under the assumption that there is no God, and this is not the place to debate that if you disagree.) Does this mean that life is meaningless? No. It means that looking for meaning at that level is a category error. Meaning is something that minds do, and if you look at it from that perspective, then you will be able to find a meaning for your life (provided that you keep in mind that you're creating it, not seeking it). If you look for some outside force to impose a meaning on your life, you'll find religion or become a nihilist. Neither of those allows your mind to live up to its potential.

So "Does life have a meaning?" is not a useful question to ask. A better question is "Can life have a meaning?", and the answer to that is definitely yes.