Does God Have A Sense Of Humor - The Great Debate

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Recently I was thinking about the Christian practice of baptism. As an infant I was baptized in the Roman Catholic tradition with the sprinkling of Holy Water. Later in preadolescence I was baptized by immersion according to the practice of the Baptist Church. This morning, and as I have said, after thinking about the practice of baptism, the upstairs toilet overflowed while I was in the kitchen making coffee. The water came down through the ceiling tiles and as I rushed to get buckets and towels I felt the water dripping down on my head and thought "this must be God's idea of a joke."

I found this video of Arj Barker on the subject of whether or not God has a sense of humor and found it hilarious. I would enjoy hearing what other WP members think about the idea of God having a sense of humor and any personal anecdotes on the subject.

Arj Barker - Does God Have a Sense of Humor?

If God does have sense of humor, it must depraved. To him, events like the Black Plague, the Holocaust and 9/11 would've been laugh riots.

Probably not.

@ Odd goat: He's considered the creator, ergo his idea of a joke would be the duck-billed platypus (its poisonous, aquatic, has a bird's bill, mammalian, yet lays eggs . . . wtf?!?)

As for world events (hunger, war, etc), that's just a culmination of human stupidity (ability to do something but dont, or create issue for personal gain only).

@OP: As for toilet water, well thats a law of nature - if something isnt maintained, disaster happens. Pity no one had a camera running, would have been worth $10,000.

Personally, i view the concept of god as being more like the Q from Star Trek: TNG.

So famine and drought are a culmination of human stupidity and are new but the platypus has been around forever?

How about children who starve (They need food but they live somewhere where there isn't any? wtf?!?)

This debate is as "great" as the debate on whether Santa Claus wears pajamas if he goes to bed or whether the Easter Bunny is ever attacked by predators

Free will.

Now look at this and tell me that, if there is a god, he dosen't have a sense of humour:

It happened again later in the day after the first mess got cleaned up. This time it was far worse, like a deluge, and further investigation revealed it was coming from the tub and not the toilet or the bathroom sink. My daughter and her husband opened the little door in the wall and found that the plumbing was jerry-rigged with coat hangers and such to keep the pipes in place and connected to one another. Fortunately, my husband was able to fix it properly this AM.

"Q is about to seek revenge on the Calamarain, but Q2 pops in again, so Q puts the Calamarain back, blowing them out like a candle. He appears on the bridge with a mariachi band, cigars, and a pair of scantily-clad women to celebrate. The crew rejects his thanks and Q leaves, vowing to return the favor sometime soon. Upon his departure Q leaves Data a little going-away present - not using his powers to make him human as Data suspects, but allowing him to experience laughter for a few surreal moments. Also it emerges that, as a final gesture of thanks, Q has returned Bre'el IV's errant moon to its correct orbit. But as Picard says there may be a residue of Humanity in Q, he appears as a cigar in Picard's hand and tells him not to bet on it. "

Wow!. I'm not knowledgeable about Star Trek, but after doing a bit of research on a fantastic site Memory-Alpha , I can understand perfectly why you view the concept of god as being like Q. Right on. A mariachi band, cigars, scantily-clad women Way to go Q. Appearing as a cigar - Hilarious. And also a little bit Freudian. Allowing Data to experience laughter for a few surreal moments - Such Compassion. That's beautiful.

BTW, you and another poster, Pakled, have piqued my interest in Star Trek. Really, I am beginning to think it is probably up there on the level of Shakespeare and the Bible. Must reads for a well rounded education of the human race et al. Can't wait to read more. Uh-Oh. New Obsession Alert.

Or take the male genitalia. You have one hole out of which comes both waste water and half of your future offspring. Whoever came up with that idea? Either there is no personal God and this is just the consequence of unpersonal forces within nature, either God is a stupid designer instead of an intelligent one or God has a very dark taste of humor. I go for the first option myself as this is the only one to make any sense when looking at the whole picture .

Of course god (or God or gods or godess, etc) MUST have a since of humor, and it is indeed a bit off kilter. We are talking about absolute power after all!

The sweet salt of our tears of suffering provide it with all of the nutrition that it needs to keep being a god.

And to comment on the poster above, only a bad designer would leave our genetellia exposed when we walk upright. And who would think of putting a refuse dispenser right next to an amusement park?

I suppose a psychoanalysis of God is about as fitting as one of Donald Duck since both are rather amusing inventions with human implications.

God just sent me a message on Facebook and said he was laughing at this thread and the nonsense coming from it. I mean really, seriously, because there are starving people God isn't allowed to laugh? Or he does so but at their circumstance?

Let's put it this way, to suggest God doesn't (or shouldn't) have a sense of humor because of any specific circumstance is nothing more than specious reasoning that engages in numerous presuppositions. Here's the reality: If one believes that man is created in God's image (as most religions do), then it is safe to speculate that he quite likely has a sense of humor. As for where that humor exists? Anyone's guess is as good as another's (and likewise, specifics are speculative as well).

"Einstein was wrong when he said "God does not play dice". Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen."
Stephen Hawking

The disdain exhibited for the platypus is quite ironic considering the human situation.It took millions of years of trial and error for the platypus to develop a physiology to survive and prosper in its environment. A human placed in that environment would die very rapidly. Hundreds of thousands of humans these days spend their lives sitting before a light emitting screen pushing buttons and suffering all sorts of medical and mental problems as a result of not being adapted to their environment. If God is laughing at idiocy He's surely looking at humans.

Does a (tornado) have a sense of humor?

Last edited by Meadow on 02 Feb 2010, 12:34 am, edited 2 times in total.

Meadow Darling, could you please make your picture a little smaller so it fits on the page and doesn't make the thread go all plooey? I can't make out what it is. Is it a prick?