Reply to Onion Article

I tweeted a link to this article at the Onion God clarification.

I wanted to put a comment after the letter, but, so far as I can see, you can't comment on an Onion article.  That's a bit surprising, but I suppose they get too many crazies.

Anyway, I do like this article.  It does mostly reflect the way I see God.

The Onion is uniquely situated to issue this type of article, without qualifying it with something like "I believe God wants ...."  They can just baldly assert that "He" actually had a press conference.

I'm pretty sure they would, if necessary, issue another article where "He" makes some qualifying statement about "his" gender.   I personally find the assertion that God has gender baffling.  Surely God: can appear as whatever God chooses;  does not always choose to appear human and with gender; and does not have fixed divine genitalia floating out somewhere in outer space?

There is just one point that I want to address here and that has to do with identifying elements of scripture as being due to human error.

I prefer the interpretation which Baha'ullah gave.  He said that scripture was issued with a message to people in a particular time and place.  Taking it out of context in another time and place can yield results that were not intended at the time.

Thus, in particular, with respect to the teachings against same sex relationships in the Bible, I believe that they were intended to address marital infidelity.  The "do not lie down with a man as with a woman," implies that this person is doing both.  I don't think, at the time, people were really thinking about people who might want to marry someone of the same sex.  I doubt that occurred to anyone, so people saw no need to address that issue.

Spelling reform

Now here is a question, which I think is totally inadequately discussed

I am interested in spelling reform.  Studies show that countries, such as Italy, which have had spelling reform, have much lower rates of dyslexia -- maybe even NO dyslexia.  Currently incredible numbers of person hours are spent teaching children spelling.  It takes years to get kids to spell properly and even then it is unlikely that most of them are always successful.  If we have spelling reform, all those hours could be spent with these kids actually reading, rather than learning irregular spelling.

How do you feel about spelling reform?

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Aside: I can't help but wonder, if the people who were spending all these hours teaching irregular spellings to small children were men, wouldn't we have had spelling reform a long time ago?

Trying to organize information about my Quixotic Quest

My quixotic quest for the world anthem was inspired by learning about Michael Jackson’s ideas on this topic.

Michael Jackson believed that if we could achieve the whole world singing an anthem together, it might make war more difficult.  This was based on watching his audiences unite in singing with him when he was on stage — and seeing racial/ethnic/religious/gender differences dissolve in those audiences when people sang and danced together.

Michael Jackson wrote or co-wrote at least three songs focusing on uniting the world: “Cry,” “Heal the World,” and “We are the World.”   Here is a list of some videos showing people singing these songs

Michael Jackson's "Cry" video

Kris Philips singing Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie's Song "We are the World"

Connie Talbot singing MIchael Jackson's song "Heal the World"

I’ve been writing a lot about this quest under another pseudonym.  Here is a list of blogs that focus on the quixotic quest.  A lot of these blogs have been inspired by my interest in Pop Music, and the incredible power that this music has to unite fans all over the world.

https://skysong263.blogspot.com/2020/01/thehuofficial-and-quixoticquest.html
2019 allegations against mj
Miss Saigon and the Quixotic Quest
Wonder Woman and the Quixotic Quest
Latest on the Quixotic Quest cc @joshgroban
World Hip-Hop Dance Competition and the Quixotic Quest
Progress on the Quixotic Quest

Judith Hill appearing with Josh

Open letter to Stevie Wonder

Singing for World Peace

Letter to Josh Groban of October 2010

A bit of Autobiography

The Mayan Apocalypse and the Quixotic Quest
Questions for the Republican Political Debate

Here are some blogs that mention the quest as an aside

Does one buy or listen to MJ's works now?
Elton John at Madison Square Garden

Afterthoughts about Blogs about Josh

Eric Whitacre at Alice Tully Hall March 2013
Josh Groban at the Beacon Theater 9/29/15

I recognize that many people now detest Michael Jackson because of the TV special with allegations that he molested children. I don't know whether he did or he didn't, but his observations of the unifying effect of music, dance, and children remain very valid.  You could say many things about him, but no one could dispute that he knew his audience.

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Addendum 7/1/15

There was a great video with an interview between Ethan Bortnick and David Foster about the power of music.  In this video David Foster posited that music brought the Berlin Wall down.  I had an embedded youtube video of this interview here, but the link is broken now, so I had to delete it.

This interview was particularly poignant to me, because I was an exchange student in the USSR in Leningrad in the summer of 1978.  That summer there was a protest in Leningrad when a concert by a western rock band was cancelled.  

The Americans in my program were suddenly given surprise tickets to the Kirov Ballet that evening, which were normally never available, so we wouldn't be out on the street when the protest, which was anticipated, occurred.  When we came out, we could see water on the streets in the area of the protest, where the government had opened up fire hoses on the protestors.

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Addendum 1/3/16

The anthem of the European Union is Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."  This seems like another candidate for World Anthem. I had another great embedded youtube video here, showing a flashmob relating to this song.  Unfortunately, the link is now broken.  BTW singing/dancing flashmobs were inspired by people impressed with the unity message of Michael Jackson.

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Addendum 7/5/18

This video shows again the power of music and dance in international communication

Addendum 11/9/18

They're still singing "We Are the World" in China! 

Addendum 2/16/19

I've been trying to draw Josh Groban's attention to my #QuixoticQuest for a while. I don't think he accepts this concept.  However, he does have a related concept, about the unifying effect of music -- see, e.g. this recording, where, near the end he talks about Bridge Over Troubled Water

https://chirb.it/OwbcHP

Sometimes, I think that YouTube is really the realization of Michael Jackson's dreams for singing around the world -- as people all over the world are listening to each other sing and singing the same songs.

Addendum 8/25/19

Here's another article about the political effect of music

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/how-k-pop-is-tempting-young-north-koreans-to-cross-the-line/2019/08/19/0f984654-839f-11e9-b585-e36b16a531aa_story.html

This article reminds me of the interview between David Foster & Ethan Bortnick that I referred to above, but which seems to have been deleted from YouTube.