Reverend Jeber

 I was never pushed into religion, I waded in all on my own at a young age. It took me until I was 22 to wade back out.  So for me it was a natural progression in my search for meaning. Now I look to philosophy and physics. When I look back at my former beliefs it’s like remembering when I believed in Santa.

For many years I’ve refused to give advice. What’s worked in my unique life may not work in someone else’s. Besides, they often don’t listen anyway, or they do, the advice doesn’t work, and they resent you.  But lately I’ve been seeing people who are down on themselves, being subjected to the bigoted or ignorant comments of others. I feel an urge to reach out, to offer aid and comfort. That’s why I got ordained, to minister. Not with religion but with support and acceptance. So that’s my mission now. To encourage those who are down to ignore the opinions of others and to find their unique inner strength and beauty. If I can help one person become happy with themselves and inspire them to find the value of themselves, I will consider my life well spent.

It seems obvious to me that life exists on Earth due to a combination of factors for which there is no reason to think have ever occurred anywhere else. Sure, we’ve found the building blocks of life in asteroids. But on a different planet with a different environment, they might fail to find all the factors they need. I know people cite probabilities in an effort to make the idea that life on Earth can’t simply be a one-off. But it can. We have no evidence that contradicts the possibility. And if that’s the case, life only exists here, our living is a happy accident, so what? Does that affect our being alive at this moment? Not really. No purpose, no meaning, that doesn’t rob us of the ability to provide our own meaning and purpose to our lives.