///Life has whatever meaning *you* choose, josep, not anything handed down from On High, or anything/anywhere else.///

I disagree. I agree with the ancient philosophers/poets who held that humans are composed of six "earthly" element and one "heavenly" one. Mineral, vegetable and meat were the last three and then a seventh came down from above and crowned them off, pacified them, brought them order. It is, of course, our consciousness. Now, of course, this is metaphorical. Consciousness didn't come down from the sky. This perfected being was called "The Prince of Peace." Christians today think it applies to a historical creature from 2000 years ago. It applies to all of us in potential. Jesus Christ is a template of the perfected human--a true prince of peace. You could call him a buddha if you'd like.

This was known to the Ancient Egyptians as Iu-Em-Hetep (Imhotep) or "He Who Comes Seventh" or "He Who Comes to Bring Peace." This was a well-known concept in the times that Christians were proclaiming a historical Christ so Matthew actually has Jesus say, "Think not that I am come to bring peace but a sword." Generations of Christians have puzzled over those words not knowing why the author put them in their savior's mouth. He did it to stop people of his time from saying, "Oh, you mean this Jesus Christ you preach is just the old Imhotep concept rehashed. Right, gotcha."

The true concept is still found in Christmas Carols as "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "Joy to the World."

Now you can take the tack of Teilhard de Chardin and say consciousness is inherent in matter and so it wasn't necessary for it to come down from above. I agree with that too. It's how you choose to interpret things.