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.
We are talking about different things - the Universe having a purpose, and making your life have a purpose.
An atheist believes his or her life can have a purpose, while the universe does not have a purpose.
Since one's life is not identical to "the universe", it is possible for one's life to have purpose, but not ones universe.