Does God Have A Sense Of Humor?

[add]

I sincerely hope!
If it wasn't for humor I don't think that I could deal with all the things life has thrown my way. I get the feeling sometimes that God is setting me up to fail just for the fun of iit to teach me lessons

I may or may not be amused, but I think he means well

Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't

Thoughts?

Edited January 10, 2014 by add

[Nihil Obstat]

What is the fundamental basis for humour, in your opinion?

[add]

What is the fundamental basis for humour, in your opinion?

You were born. Or I was Edited January 10, 2014 by add

[Clare Brigid]

What is the fundamental basis for humour, in your opinion?

 

The first word that came to mind was, "the unexpected."

[Not The Philosopher]

What is the fundamental basis for humour, in your opinion?

 

Bad puns.

 

(Humerus, I know)

[Nihil Obstat]

The first word that came to mind was, "the unexpected."

That was my first thought, although I'm not convinced whether or not there is more to it. But in any case that leads to the natural question, whether or not that applies to God, or to heaven.
Can the unexpected exist in heaven? I am not sure.

[Ancilla Domini]

He made me. He must have a sense of humor. :lol4: :dance2:

[KnightofChrist]

What is the fundamental basis for humour, in your opinion?

When rightly ordered, I believe good humor would be the ability to cause a happiness or joy in us that makes us laugh.

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

God definately does have a sense of humour, but i don't believe in the sense of the O.P that God would set us up to fail to have a laugh. But you know how parents have a laugh at children sometimes when there chucking a tantrum because the tantrum gets you nowhere. God showed me once in a sign that he has a sense of humour but am unsure exactly what that means, but still God can neither tempt nore be tempted, he definately doesn't set us up for failure although he may get us to where pink undies accidentally at a blue undies ball to show us blue undie balls are stupid and to where whatever color undies you wan't that some things are in consequential and not all things are sins. Something like that anyhow. My op(opinion) that is all. God bless ya'll.

 

Onward christian souls.

 

Jesus iz LORD.

[Nihil Obstat]

When rightly ordered, I believe good humor would be the ability to cause a happiness or joy in us that makes us laugh.

Hmm... Intriguing, but I am unsure. Can we properly conflate joy and humour?
I am mostly musing here.

[Luigi]

Humor is un-Biblical. 

 

The prophets never played pranks on their pals. Jesus never joked with the Jews. It's "The Acts of the Apostles," not "The Antics of the Apostles."

 

Besides, humor is based on the unexpected or the surprising - we don't see the punch line coming, or we walk all unawares into a prank situation. And since God is omniscient, nothing is unexpected or surprising to Him.

 

Therefore, humor is not a characteristic of God.

 

 

So to the OP I say, "Bah! Humbug!"

Edited January 10, 2014 by Luigi

[add]

MEMO

am God. Today I will be handling all of your problems. Please remember that I do not need your help. If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. It will be addressed in My time, not yours. Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it.

If you find yourself stuck in traffic; Don't despair. There are people in this world for whom driving is an unheard of privilege.

Should you have a bad day at work; Think of the man who has been out of work for years.

Should you despair over a relationship gone bad; Think of the person who has never known what it's like to love and be loved in return.

Should you grieve the passing of another weekend; Think of the man in dire straits, working twelve hours a day, seven days a week to feed his children.

Should your car break down, leaving you miles away from assistance; Think of the paraplegic who would love the opportunity to take that walk.

Should you notice a new gray hair in the mirror; Think of the cancer patient in chemo who wishes she had hair to examine.

Should you find yourself at a loss and pondering what is life all about, asking what is my purpose? Be thankful. There are those who didn't live long enough to get the opportunity.

Should you find yourself the victim of other people's bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities; Remember, things could be worse. You could be them!!!!

[Clare Brigid]

I truly believe that Our Lord has an exquisite, tender sense of humor.

 

It has been my own experience with Him.  There have been times when, in His providence, certain things have happened that gave me to understand and intuit His delight and joy through a wonderful irony in what He arranged.  I'll never forget it.

Edited January 10, 2014 by Clare Brigid

[Byzantine]

Platypuses. That settles the argument.

[KnightofChrist]

Honestly I don't know if we, or rather I can properly conflate joy and humor. I do believe they can be deeply woven together at times. Humor is more than cracking jokes, and I don't believe humor is always unexpected or surprising. I think it can also be ironic, and there are many other ways something or someone can be humorous. The recent event of the global warming scientists on a mission to study effects of global warming in Antarctica getting stuck due to the waters freezing over. For me at least it wasn't unexpected, or surprising, but it still was a bit humorous. I also found it humorous that most news reports didn't report that they were there to study the effects of global warming, that also was to be expected and was unsurprising.
 
Also, I don't believe humor, good humor is non-biblical, bad humor can be non-biblical. Humor is too intertwined with our emotions, like joy or happiness, for it to be dismissed as such. Our emotions, when rightly ordered, are part of our being made in the image of God. Like all emotions there are good ways to hold them and bad ways, and there are good ways to cause us to have emotions and bad ways. 

 

I recall Bishop Sheen using a passage from Luke 24 as an example of the humor of Christ. I think it may well be an example of how Christ does have a sense of humor.
 

The Road to Emmaus

13 And behold, two of them went, the same day, to a town which was sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, named Emmaus. 14And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 And it came to pass, that while they talked and reasoned with themselves, Jesus himself also drawing near, went with them. 16 But their eyes were held, that they should not know him. 17 And he said to them: What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk, and are sad? 18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answering, said to him: Art thou only a stranger to Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that have been done there in these days? 19 To whom he said: What things? And they said: Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people; 20 And how our chief priests and princes delivered him to be condemned to death, and crucified him.

 
It's not the type of humor one would find in a stand up comic, nor would it necessarily be funny haha or funny hoho, but still it does seem like there could be some type of humor there. Of course Christ knew the things that were done, and if it were possible for us to walk alone side Christ and these two disciplines when this conversion was going on I think many of us may just crack a small smile when Christ ask "What things?".
 
Here are two other examples from Bishop Sheen on the Divine Humor.
 
http://youtu.be/xGSsPFw52b8

 

A Divine Sense of Humor

No one can ever understand the sacraments unless he has what might be
called a "divine sense of humor." A person is said to have a sense of
humor if he can "see through" things; one lacks a sense of humor if he
cannot "see through" things. No one has ever laughed at a pun who did
not see in the one word a twofold meaning. To materialists this world
is opaque like a curtain; nothing can be seen through it. A mountain is
just a mountain, a sunset just a sunset; but to poets, artists, and
saints, the world is transparent like a window pane--it tells of
something beyond; for example, a mountain tells of the Power of God,
the sunset of His Beauty, and the snowflake of His Purity.

When the Lord Incarnate walked this earth, He brought to it what might
be called a "divine sense of humor." There is only one thing that He
took seriously, and that was the soul. He said: "What exchange shall a
man give for his soul?" Everything else was a tell-tale of something
else. Sheep and goats, wine bottles and patches on clothing, camels and
eyes of needles, the lightning flash and the red of the sunset sky, the
fisherman's nets and Caesar's coin, chalices and rich men's gates--all
of these were turned into parables and made to tell the story of the
Kingdom of God.

Our Lord had a divine sense of humor, because He revealed that the
universe was sacramental. A sacrament, in a very broad sense of the
term, combines two elements: one visible, the other invisible--one that
can be seen, or tasted, or touched, or heard; the other unseen to the
eyes of the flesh. There is, however, some kind of relation or
significance between the two. A spoken word is a kind of sacrament,
because there is something material or audible about it; there is also
something spiritual about it, namely, its meaning. A horse can hear a
funny story just as well as a man. It is conceivable that the horse may
hear the words better than the man and at the end of the story the man
may laugh, but the horse will never give a horse laugh. The reason is
that the horse gets only the material side of the "sacrament," namely,
the sound; but the man gets the invisible or the spiritual side,
namely, the meaning.

A handshake is a kind of sacrament, because there is something seen and
felt, namely, the clasping of hands; but there is something mysterious
and unseen, namely, the communication of friendship. A kiss is a kind
of sacrament: the physical side of it is present if one kisses one's
own hand, but the spiritual side of it is missing because there is no
sign of affection for another. One of the reasons why a stolen kiss is
often resented is that it is not sacramental; it has the carnal side
without a spiritual side; that is, the willingness to exchange a mark
of esteem or affection.

This book on the sacraments is written because men live in a world that
has become entirely too serious. Gold is gold, nuclear warfare is
nuclear warfare, dust is dust, money is money. No significance or
meaning is seen in the things that make a sound to the ear, or a sight
to the eye. In a world without a divine sense of humor, architecture
loses decoration and people lose courtesy in their relationships with
one another.

When civilization was permeated with a happier philosophy, when things
were seen as signs of outward expression of the unseen, architecture
was enhanced with a thousand decorations: a pelican feeding her young
from her own veins symbolized the sacrifice of Christ; the gargoyle
peering from behind a pillar in a cathedral reminded us that
temptations are to be found even in the most holy places. Our Lord, on
the occasion of His planned entrance into Jerusalem, said that if men
withheld their praise of Him, "the very stones would cry out," which
they did as, later, they burst into Gothic Cathedrals.

Now the stones are silent, for modern man no longer believes in another
world; they have no story to tell, no meaning to convey, no truth to
illustrate. When faith in the spiritual is lost, architecture has
nothing to symbolize; similarly when men lose the conviction of the
immortal soul, there is a decline in the respect for the human. Man
without a soul is a thing; something to be used, not something to be
reverenced. He becomes "functional" like a building, or a monkey
wrench, or a wheel. The courtesies, the amenities, the urbanities, the
gentility that one mortal ought to have for another are neglected once
man is no longer seen as bearing within himself the Divine Image.
Courtesy is not a condescension of a superior to an inferior, or a
patronizing interest in another's affairs; it is the homage of the
heart to the sacredness of human worth. Courtesy is born of holiness,
as ornamentation is born of the sense of the holy. Let us see if
ornamentation returns to architecture, if courtesy also returns to
human manners; for by one and the same stroke, men will have lost their
dull seriousness, and will begin to live in a sacramental universe with
a divine sense of humor.

Life is a vertical dimension expressed in the soaring spire, or in the
leaping fountain, both of which suggest that earth, history, and nature
must be left behind to seek union with the Eternal. Opposite to this is
an error which substitutes the horizontal for the vertical, the
prostrate form of death for the upright stature of life. It is the
disease of secularity and of naturalism. It insists on the ultimacy of
the seen and the temporal, and the meaninglessness of the spiritual and
the invisible.

Two errors can mar our understanding of the natural world: one is to
cut off entirely from Almighty God; the other is to confound it
substantially with Him. In the first instance, we have the clock
without the clock maker, the painting without the artist, the verse
without the poet. In the second instance, we have the forger and the
forged rolled into one, the melting and the fusing of the murderer and
the victim, the boiling of the cook and his dinner. Atheism cuts off
creation from its Creator; pantheism identifies nature with God. The
true notion is that the material universe is a sign or an indication of
what God is. We look at the purity of the snowflake and we see
something of the goodness of God. The world is full of poetry: it is
sin which turns it into prose.