Re: [asa] evidence for design

On 2/26/09, Don Winterstein <dfwinterstein@msn.com> wrote:
> Since you leave no room for argument, we'll have to agree to disagree. >>

Always room for debate, friend. My speculations are just that -- I
claim no "eternal verities" here.

I used to run a forum on Compuserve called "religious humor." We had
great fun there, both theists and non-theists together.

Here is a sermon on the humor of Jesus. It is well thought out.

Burgy (a smile is always better than a frown)

 The Often-Overlooked Humor of Jesus
      By the Rev. Timothy Schenck
      There’s nothing worse than a humorless Christian. Here’s their credo: to
      smile is to deny Christ. Frivolity is sacrilege. There is a great schism
      between the sacred and the humorous. But this understanding of the
      Christian life is incomplete. A more nuanced reading of
Scripture leads us
      irrevocably away from this attitude of holier-than-thou solemnity. Jesus
      uses humor to teach, to heal, to convert and, ultimately, to redeem.
      Laughter and profundity are not mutually exclusive.
      But is Jesus funny? This question has long confounded theologians. Maybe
      it’s all in how you define “humor.” The gospels aren’t funny in the
      traditional sense. It’s not slapstick comedy; there are no pratfalls. The
      humor of Jesus is subtle, nearly imperceptible at first glance.
The Sermon
      on the Mount doesn’t begin with a joke to warm up the crowd. But Jesus
      does display great wit, command of the language, a gift for
irony and word
      plays and impeccable timing — all hallmarks of great comedians.
And, after
      all, the aim of the Evangelists was not to record Jesus’ sense of humor.
      The gospels are passion narratives, not anthologies of “The Wit
and Wisdom
      of Jesus Christ.” But then the story of our salvation, the death and
      resurrection of our Lord, is serious business. Our very life depends upon
      it.
      Which is precisely why Jesus made his message accessible. Parables, with
      their use of common language and commentary on everyday situations, spoke
      directly to people. And so, while Jesus’ messages held the keys to
      salvation, they were couched in language people could
understand. A master
      storyteller would never forsake humor as a means to reach an audience.
      Jesus, who spent much of his ministry breaking down barriers between
      people, knew that humor does exactly this. Humor disarms and unites. It
      sets people at ease and leaves them receptive to the speaker’s message.
      Laughter is simply good for the soul. And it allows us to confront the
      darker sides of life with grace and composure.
      Since God created humor, it makes sense that Jesus would use humor to
      communicate with humanity. Without humor, life would be unbearable. Humor
      is used as a means to deal with the burdens of life. It makes light the
      yoke of sin, death and human frailty. Jesus recognized that humor is as
      equal a part of the human condition as suffering and joy. It is integral
      to the human condition, and Jesus embodied this just as much as he
      embodied forgiveness, compassion and hope.
      Jesus had a wonderfully vibrant sense of humor, but it wasn’t employed
      merely to “get laughs.” It is humor that seeks to inform and
convert. Even
      when the humor is directed at a certain group, such as the Pharisees, it
      is still a humor born of love and compassion. Jesus mocks the
      self-righteous even while calling them to open their eyes,
repent and see.
      Jesus exposes our human foibles not to embarrass or condemn but to
      illuminate and transform. When we take ourselves too seriously, we commit
      perhaps humanity’s greatest sin: trusting in ourselves rather than God.
      Jesus shows us the absurd consequences that invariably result.
      The examples of Jesus’ irony and wit are plentiful. Take, for instance,
      his relationship with Peter. Naming this impetuous, overly eager apostle
      “the rock” is amusing. You can almost envision the sly smile as Jesus
      says, “Upon this rock I will build my church.” Time after time, Peter was
      anything but a rock in difficult situations. The irony must not have been
      lost on the other disciples. And yet, it indeed was upon this “rock” that
      the Church was built. With Jesus, the line between the deadly serious
      business of faith and the human attempt to live out this faith
blurs. And,
      because there is some of Peter in all of us, it becomes untenable to take
      ourselves too seriously. Which is precisely Jesus’ point.
      Perhaps we can view the humorless Pharisees as the ultimate straight men
      for Jesus. Throughout the four gospels the joke, it seems, is on them.
      Their somber rigidity is paralyzing. Their hypocrisy and
      self-righteousness keep them from true relationship with the Divine. They
      are the perfect foils to Jesus’ message of love. Jesus continually meets
      their scorn and contempt with quick wit and perfect timing. The
encounters
      with the Pharisees are full of brilliant one-liners. “Render to
Caesar the
      things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”
(Mt 22:21)
      is a perfect response dripping with irony. The blind leading the
blind is,
      of course, a comical visual image and a pointed commentary on the
      religious leaders of the day (Mt 15:14). And think about the hilarious
      image of straining out a gnat while eating a camel (Mt 23:24).
His hearers
      certainly chuckled at this purposefully ludicrous image. And it
invariably
      stuck with them.
      There are hosts of other wonderfully amusing moments in the gospel
      accounts. There is irony and humorous exaggeration, phrases that would
      have brought smiles to the lips of his hearers, if not full belly laughs.
      Explaining the efficacy of prayer he asks the Apostles, “What
father among
      you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If your son asks
      for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?” (Lk 11:11-12) “It is
easier for
      a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich person to
      enter the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:25). That’s a memorable image. What fool
      would place a lamp “under a bushel basket or under a bed and not on the
      lampstand?” (Mk 4:21) In his classic book The Humor of Jesus, Elton
      Trueblood cites 30 examples of Jesus’ use of humor. And the list goes on
      and on if we are open to reading the gospels through the hermeneutic of
      humor.
      It is a bit odd that within the Church the humor of Jesus is so roundly
      ignored. Maybe we’re afraid to laugh in the presence of the Divine. We
      tend to shy away from visions of our Lord smiling and joking and engaging
      us in laughter. Yet there is great evidence that Jesus desires this
      important piece of our humanity to shine forth. One obstacle may be that
      Jesus’ mastery of words is literally lost in translation. Our
Scripture is
      a translation of the Greek, which is a translation of Jesus’ own Aramaic.
      Without knowledge of Jesus’ native tongue, certain wordplays are simply
      lost to us. For instance, an added layer of Matthew 23:24 is that the
      Aramaic word for gnat is galma and the word for camel is gamla. We are
      deaf to this aspect of the exchange.
      We also lose the facial expressions and tone of voice so crucial to
      successful comedy. David Letterman can make us laugh with a simple facial
      expression or the inflection of his voice. A manuscript of his show
      wouldn’t be nearly as amusing as seeing it live. And unfortunately the
      gospels have been handed down to us as manuscripts.
      The point here is not to place Jesus in the Comedy Hall of Fame.
Rather it
      is to encourage us to see and hear the message of our Lord with
fresh eyes
      and ears, to discover a new aspect of his divine brilliance and to meet
      Him with renewed joy and laughter in our hearts. May we continue to take
      seriously our ministry but not ourselves.

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Received on Thu Feb 26 11:38:51 2009