Purpose indicate a meaning an objective that a group of people have in regarding to something (deity, money, health, other...).
Atheists don't believe in God but they don't have a faith: so the word purpose has no meaning to them.
You know that. I know that. Try explaining that to BADecker.
Look, even if atheist all thought that the universe doesn't have a purpose - not all of them think this way -
Yes, they do. If the universe has a purpose it must have a creator. If you believe in a creator, you're not atheist.
Does an atheist do anything in the universe? Does an atheist dream? Does he make plans? Does he use the things of the universe? For him the universe has a purpose. If it didn't, he would go off and commit suicide out of despair. If he didn't commit suicide out of despair, and the universe didn't have a purpose for him - at least in his own mind - he would have to be a vegetable.
An atheist views himself as god, although he may not recognize that he is doing so. Since he doesn't know much about himself - the way-down-deep human self that he is - yet he believes that he knows, he has a personal religion going.
What you're saying is extremely arrogant for talking for each and everyone of us.
An atheist is someone thinking there is no purpose in the universe. But does it mean he has to commit suicide out of dispair? No of course not. Because thinking there is no purpose to the universe doesn't mean you can't have any will or any purpose yourself.
You don't have to follow a divine guideline to be happy, to just understand the basic satisfaction of love and good health. That's the goal of most of us: to find someone to love and be happy.
There is absolutely no link between that and any kind of religion...