The meaning of life

Every person exists in a universe that doesn't care about anyone's death. When I die it won't matter to the universe and I will eventually be forgotten. So in this sense my life is meaningless: it means nothing whether or not I die, to the universe at least. BUT within this uncaring universe I exist with other people. I can experience pleasure in my life and I can derive enjoyment from many things including the enhancement, artificial and meaningless as it probably is, of other people's lives. Meaning in life can be defined in these two ways and both are necessary and valid. Life means something in its self-contained, imaginary way. Pleasure, in essence, is the source of happiness in life. We seek a pleasurable existence, from which we derive happiness, from which we derive meaning. Happiness gives meaning to the universally meaningless life of a person.
The reason to live, as the absurdist says according to Mr. McCarthy, is revolt/change. We have this life so we should use it to make life more pleasurable for ourselves and others. In this seeking of pleasure and happiness we derive meaning for OURSELVES. To the universe, I don't mean anything. But my life has meaning in happiness. That happiness is meaning.

If happiness isn't meaning in life then what is? Being God? Getting into heaven? We don't need those constructs or ideals because we can live our lives as happy, existing people. Muersault simply exists and enjoys certain things, yet he describes his life and the things he does as meaningless. He decided to not consider that happiness to be meaningful in this grand sense of the universal meaning. He could just as easily decide to find that happiness meaningful and he wouldn't be imagining this happiness, and it wouldn't be any less meaningful in his life, because he decided to make it meaningful. The two kinds of meaning as I see them here are universal meaning (death and nothingness for every person, but still life) and meaning in personal existence. The latter is a meaning within society that can be as real as one wishes it to be. This makes it false to the universe but the universe does not define anyone's life, as it doesn't care anyway. A self-contained life in which meaning is found to the individual is as meaningful as a life in which we can get into heaven or become part of the universe.

Candide's punishments

Candide killed people in self defense. So he should not be punished. He acted as he knew best, which, at the time, was murder. Er, killing. But hold on. He killed that Jew guy just for being an ashhole (to use Matthew's euphemism) to Cunegonde. so that one, maybe we blame him for. And then he just kind of turned around and slayed the Inquisitor. So that two against Candide. He killed the two monkeys that were lovers of the girls. This was just trying to do the right thing, but still. Love lost because of Candide. SO thats now a few people/monkeys. Candide has been punished by not getting to see Cunegonde. And he keeps killing people until he will get to see her. Is it possible that he is not being allowed to see her because he keeps killing? Like the Inquisitor and his earthquake quick-fix, Candide just might be causing this evil against him to continue. He deserves any punishment levied against him. Candide has barely been punished, really. Considering the awful things that happen to people in this story, Candide is getting off easy. He has all of his limbs, both of his buttocks are intact, he hasn't been violated by anyone, and he still has a woman who inexplicably loves him, despite the whole murderer vibe he has going on. Also Candide ruins lives. No one has really enjoyed their time with Candide and furthermore, most people he meets die somehow. Candide deserves all punishments he gets.

How do we know what we know?

Knowledge is relative to environment. The mind can rationalize and convince itself, in a more conscious way, that one reality is "more real" in a sense. So the knowledge of the physical world around us is only knowable within the confines of that physical world. The mind is a miracle of evolution and every part of it was created for a purpose, to play on the generally accepted Christian doctrine of God's plan. The mind is a wondrous instrument in that it can delude us into thinking that while lying on a park bench we  are in fact laying on a bed of roses inside of a castle in the sky. The mind has shown clear possibilities to create realities that differ fundamentally from the generally accepted reality that most people agree upon. This reality, that shares the same laws of physics and the same mathematics where 2 and 2 is 4, has boundaries of knowledge, but in the inherent quality of boundaries there are inherent truths. A child is instructed to not go into a dark, decrepit house because these humble, albeit downtrodden, abodes have repeatedly shown themselves to be dangerous through the (can we say sacrifices?) experiences of those unlucky people who have had bad times in ramshackle establishments. We know what we know in this physical reality our mind has reasoned out to be true by  experience within that reality. Believing that there is more to reality than simple physics, as it must have been created by something at some point, I think that these realities may simply be homes for energy that has and always will exist. The only thing that can't be destroyed, only transferred from one form to another, as proven through scientific experience, is energy. This energy of life and reality has manifested in our physical world and the experience of that physical world, however much of a proxy for true energy in the universe it may be, is the only existence we have. Our reasoning comes from our minds, which are only reliable for our perceived best interests, and therefore experience must be trusted above all else.