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.
