Twenty five years ago we sent a big ship off into space. We called it the voyager. And the idea was just to send it out there and never have it return. Just kind of set it on course and see what happens. In 2003 it has assumably reached the outer edge of our solar system finally. What an amazing concept?! We put a lot of stuff into the ship. Things that we hope some other life forms might find and then know that we exist. We made a vinyl record too. CDs didn't yet exist. So we made this record and we put some Beethoven on there and some blind Willie Johnson and some bob Dylan, probably some Elvis too. we also recorded messages in over fifty different human  languages, just in case these alien beings don't speak English but maybe speak Norwegian or something. Who knows? I don't think the irony is lost in translation. I don’t know for sure if they put any other animals speaking on the vinyl disc, such as that of a dog or a cat or a horse or whatever. Just in case... The question of course that is begging here is if some other intelligent life forms do find this ship and then eventually they discover this record, would they really know what to do with it? Realistically there aren't many people here on earth anymore who would know what to do with a vinyl record these days, let alone beings from another planet or a galaxy far far away....

<Speech before the United Nations International Conference on God and World Religions in March, 1998. New York City.> 

“Falling asleep and thinking about God one night recently. Like many nights. Wanting to pray. Not quite sure sometimes how to pray or who to pray to. I don't mind admitting that. I think its natural. The idea of God and religion is some pretty deep stuff. I guess that's why we’re all here.” laughs.  

“I want to thank you all for having me here. I am in awe of the event. I am as surprised by my appearance here as I am sure many of you are.” Laughs. “It is an honor to be here. I am learning a lot from all of you.” I paused. Applause. I continued, slowly. 

“I thought about Jesus. I told him I needed a break for a while. He seemed to understand.” Laughs. “Man gets to a certain age. Thinks he’s seen it all and done it all and thought it all. Of course we’re just kidding ourselves with that one. It feels that way sometimes though. We start to thinking that we want our thoughts and our actions to be as honest as they can be. Hard to fit religion in with that kind of thinking. Though perhaps not many religious people would agree with that idea, that's o.k. with me. I'm willing to ride that idea all on my own if I have to. But just too many damn inconsistencies in the Jesus thing for me to swallow it whole. And for me now, you just get to that stage in life when you want to know that you know what you know. You know?” laughs.

“You don't want to have any doubts about it. You don't want to have any doubts about anything. Life is already so full of doubts. So why add to that? I know what I think God is. And I don't think there are any inconsistencies in this God. I don't think God is capable of inconsistencies. So many loopholes and myths and fables and, well you know, in the whole religious thing. And that's nobodies fault and I'm not blaming anyone for it now. I think I'm over that. Took a while.” laughs. 

“Its no different with any of the other manmade religions that have touched us so far in our short time here on earth. For a lot of people they seem to do the trick nonetheless and most people don't seem to mind if they have to believe the whole red sea parted or that some guy turned to salt or that someone has ten arms and is also an elephant sometimes.” Laughs. “Doesn’t seem to bother most people, does it? For me though, this has always been rather frustrating. But for a lot of people I think they get more comfort from the ideas than they get frustrated by the inconsistencies. Unfortunately I'm just not one of those people. I can’t recount how many times I have wished that I was one of those people. But I'm just not.

“So the religions of today, just like the religions of olden days like paganism and Roman and Greek mythology, I don't personally find much comfort in them. In fact they just plain make me uncomfortable. Not uncomfortable in a really big way like say being stranded out in the middle of the ocean on a life raft thousands of miles from land.... luckily its not that bad. Not yet” laughs. “But more like when you have something caught in your eye and you just can’t get it out and you keep blinking but it won't go away. I hate that.” Laughs. “That kind of uncomfortable. 

Like I said, my God, and I have always hoped that people find a way to respect my God just as I respect theirs, my God is just too big to be boxed into any religion. At least not the ones we have developed thus far. My God doesn’t lie. He doesn’t have a face, or even a name. He doesn’t speak in parables either. My God is just too darn nice to speak in parables. No offense to other people’s Gods who maybe do like to speak in parables. I have nothing against parables. They can be fun... I guess.” Laughs. “If that's their preference. But my God, from what I have gathered so far, is beyond trickery and mystery. He just wants everyone to be happy and to understand. And my God loves everyone. He doesn’t just love a few people here and there. He doesn’t care if you believe in him or not. He's still taking you to heaven when you die. Of course only if that's what you want.” Laughs. “He’ll send you back a few times if that's what you want as well. He doesn’t care. He vibes with the whole reincarnation trip and the heaven thing as well. To him its more a matter of what will make us the most happy. One can see why perhaps my God isn’t the most popular...” Laughs. “At least not yet anyway.”  

“If you don't want either of these two ends, my God doesn’t have a problem sitting down with you and talking a bit and finding out what you do want. Maybe you want to come back to earth again. He’s cool with that. And this whole thing about hell, with all due respect to some of the other gods who send lots of people to hell who don't believe in them, cause I don't know, maybe they’re on a big ego trip, but my God kind of laughs a little when he hears us down here talking about hell. Cause he would never send any one of us there. But hey who knows, right? Maybe other people like being afraid of something like hell while they are here and that's fine with me. I don't mind. If it helps them in some way, then more power to them. As long as they don't bother me or my family or friends with it. If I ever have children, I wouldn’t want them running around worrying about a hell during their whole life times. Life is scary enough. Right? I don’t think we need to add any more horror to the mix.” Laughs. 

“And then there's the devil. You all have heard of him I'm sure.” Laughs. “I mean no disrespect by this, but my God is way too big and powerful for there to be a devil in this world or in other worlds. My God wouldn’t even consider allowing the idea to exist let alone an actual living breathing being or entity such as the “devil” that some people talk about. Nope. There’s only room for one creator and his name is not ‘the devil.’ But I'm not saying that a devil doesn’t exist, cause maybe for some people, maybe in their minds and in their hearts, they really do believe in the devil and therefore the devil exists for them. And they are truly frightened by that devil that they think exists. But I think it’s important to understand that just because they believe wholeheartedly that a devil exists doesn’t mean that a devil actually exists for the rest of us. I think that it’s important for us all to remember that. 

“Same thing when the other religions talk about the infidels or non-believers. And all this talk about all the other religions being bad and not right and all that. I think in the business of lawyering they call that ‘posturing’ and I'm pretty sure that's all it is.” laughs. “I could be wrong of course. Anyone who tells you in these modern times that they really believe that their religion is the real one, the right one, the true one, and that all the others are not, they’re probably just posturing. Probably just pulling your leg. I used to let it bother me a lot. But I don't pay it much attention anymore. 

“Now, when I talk to my God I just kind of envision something that is as beautiful and powerful and nice and sweet and kind and understanding and all knowing that I can. And I'm sure this God is a whole lot more than even that image. But I let all the religious definitions and all that kind of stuff go. I just try to allow God to be as pure as possible, without any of the human elements that a lot of people like to attach to their God. So when I speak about God, I understand that everyone has their own idea of what that means to them. That's why we’re all here this week. And for some people they like to include Jesus in there. Or Mary, or Mohamed. And that's o.k. with me. And other people they hear the word God and to them they know without a shadow of a doubt in their hearts that that God is Allah. And that's o.k. with me too. And still others they think God is really called Krishna and he actually lived on earth at one time and was married and everything. And I think that's fine as well. 

“You know, God is just such a big and wonderful thing. I think he's probably big enough to hold all of these projections and identities and still come out alright. Especially when its kept really clean and pure, its no wonder we all feel such strong feelings about God. The more tolerant we can be of our differing opinions and ideas about God, I figure the happier God probably is. And for us that's probably a good thing. I wouldn’t want to make my God mad. But if I had to wager, I would bet that he doesn’t actually get mad. Probably is beyond “getting mad” in some kind of mysterious and magnificent way that we just can’t relate to yet.

“I am a humanist at heart. I worship humanity. I have always said this. But more than that really. I take that back. If I may, I am a Universalist. I believe in the Universe. And everything in it. I believe in life and energy and matter. I believe in what we can see and touch and taste and hear and measure. I believe in this universe that we live in. And maybe that's all that God is. I don't know yet. I don't know if we’ll ever know. But I do know that that's a safer bet... Not that I'm a gambling man, because I'm not. But I think we have to be really, just to be here. At this conference this week. Just to utter the word God is an intellectual and a spiritual gamble. We are allowing ourselves to go out on a limb and place the bet, because we hope for the big payoff...

“I sometimes think that perhaps the best thing we can do at this point in our search for God would be to put all the known religious texts from all over the world, just everything ever written about God or the devil or religion throughout history, in a big time-machine and send it off into space. Just try to forget that any of them ever existed for a while. Who knows? Maybe God might feel more comfortable popping in for a visit if we opened our hearts and minds a bit to what he may be rather than what we think he is or what we want him to be...”   

“In the end, when all is said and done, who really knows? God would I love to meet someone who did... Forgive the pun.” Laughs. “But even if in the final hour it turned out that we made him up. If it turned out that we just made the whole damn thing up, I don't necessarily think that that's such a bad thing. If anything, for all us, no matter which God we choose to believe in at any given time in our lives here, chances are that it’s a higher ideal than the one we have of ourselves. Perhaps the highest ideal we can muster up. And if each one of us consciously chooses to live as close to that ideal as we can while we are here, I'd bet that's going to be a pretty good thing for all of us.   

“Thank you for letting me speak. And thank you for listening.”

<end of speech>

Last screening: Under the Cherry moon. Prince at his all time best. This is one of the best albums of all time if you don't yet own it---you know the song of course, Kiss. Parade, under the cherry moon is possibly Prince’s best music album of his career. musically it is the album that showed, proved incontrovertibly that he wasn't just a great singer or writer or dancer, but a genius. [and with all due respect for the dead I don't mean genius like when people call kurt a genius, who granted had an interesting voice and wrote a few catchy songs etc, and yes was one of many to start a revolution in rock music, cause yea the word is just way too overused, which is too bad cause it dilutes the power of it, but Prince, well he's just beyond everyone really, isn't he. Kind of in a class by himself.] But more like a Beethoven or a McCartney or Miles type of a genius. Parade is so different and so musical and so other worldly. He combines funk with rock and pop and Tin Pan Alley and world and orchestral music all together. And it happens so seamlessly that you forget the miracle of what you are listening to. After that he started really exploring his whole funk side and then off he went into heavy R&B and then into his jazz phase. Parade was the fourth, best, and last of his great rock pop and funk masterpieces.