I don't know why, religion doesn't work for me, neither do any scientific ideas. I cannot find a single reason to why anything should exist. Can anyone come up with a purposeful meaning for existence?

Are you saying I shouldn't question my existence? Surely, by my post, you can see this is a difficult thing for me.

Are you looking for an objective reason, or a subjective one?

Most of what you discuss is, or is thought of as, the former:  In such religious or scientific scenarios, we exist for some Reason or Purpose, the truth of which is greater than ourselves.  If those don't work for you, rblaa's reasons work as subjective reasons.  They exist within our own minds to give our personal existence a personal meaning.

So, which are you looking for?  The Reason For Existence?  Or a reason to exist?

Or is this all a big misunderstanding, and you're really just asking "How the hell did this 'life' thing happen?"

Great post Paracetamol. I went through that same problem a few years ago living a sheltered existence, becoming a little disconnected from the outside world. It wasn't until I started putting myself out there and meeting new people that I became optimistic about life again.

What you need SpaceTyrant is a hobby or something in your life to become passionate about, something to make being sentient and being gifted with senses worth while, because then you're more able to apply a meaning to existence. For some people its playing an instrument while for others its writing dick jokes. Even just having a special person in your life be it a Best Friend, girl friend or whatever can make existing purposeful

To quote Chuck Palahnuik:
I feel lucky as I have found someone like that in my life.

Overall I'm of the opinion that if they were to come out tomorrow with the full answer to why we exist it wouldn't be a satisfying answer so like rufa and rblaa have said make life mean whatever you want it to mean.

I've always found that it's easier to find a good reason to live than a good reason not to. Then again, that's for personal existence, not the existence of everything else - that's a much beefier question philosphers have been tinkering with since man could think. I imagine the answer to that question is something that we each have to figure out personally before we die, and that there's not really a quantifiably, objective answer.

You might have trouble finding a reason to exist but I think thats because existence is all you know. Having cheated death a few months ago, i know now that life is great. I wrapped my car around a tree going about 70 mph and the cops didn't get there til 3 hours later. I bled out of my head so bad I think the total pints of blood i had to get transfused into my system was 16. Yeah that was over a period of days but 16 pints...damn. When I woke up from my coma and stopped being agitated i came to the realization that my life could be horrible from here on out. Basically i had to learn how to walk, speak, think, and even eat and drink again. Even though my life was basically laying in a hospital bed and getting random fucking surgeries, I never wished i woulda just died in my wreck. I use to think the same thing about my existence. That was if i died it was no big deal, shit happens. Now I can see that part of the reason for existence is so that others can go about their lives normally. When I was at my worst state in the hospital I was still in a coma but had multiple organ failure, using a respirator to breath, and had so many iv's in me that they had to use up both arms and hands. I live in the florida and people i knew from up north and on the west coast were flying in. A few of my friends and family members were at the hospital for at least 20 hours a day. So if i died i could of fucked things up for them pretty bad i guess. It might not be the explanation your looking for but theres a reason for everything. Sometimes you see the reason for living because your still living. I don't know where i wanted to go with this...just something to think about.

I guess what I'm saying is, that even if things exist for some greater meaning, why did that greater meaning have to exist?

I don't think you are listening to any of the responses in this thread.  Nobody has said there is a "greater meaning."  Everybody answered your original question by saying that there is no specific meaning for existence and that it is up to you to decide for yourself.  Nobody is going to be able to say, "this is what the purpose of your life is" - that is your decision.  Go and figure it out for yourself.

I agree pretty much with rblaa's points. You say you have trouble finding a purpose to your life; well if you spend your whole life worrying that it's all for nothing, then you wont have a very good one. Find your own meaning, live life how you want to. It sounds a bit Existentialist, but isn't it better to believe that you're in control of your own life, and can make your own meanings, rather than having it being set by some religious deity?

To put it more eloquently, in Douglas Adams' words:

'Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?'

Any chain of questioning repeatedly answered with "Yeah, but why?" is going to end the same way. Whether this is because there is no obtainable answer, the answer itself is nothing, or because the line of questioning is inherently flawed is a matter of personal opinion.