Talk:Mystery:Does God Have a Sense of Humor?

Yes

He does, but He doesn't intervene with modern times. Tim Tebow's 316 yards is just a coincidence, and there isn't much reason to think otherwise. JLefkowitz 17:55, 10 March 2012 (EST)

If God has a sense of humor, then it seems highly implausible that He would not intervene to enjoy the humor. Under your view, what would God find funny if not by intervention?--Andy Schlafly 18:23, 10 March 2012 (EST)

Obviously, God is infinitely great, a sense of humor is a good quality. If He was lacking it, He wouldn't be infinitely great. Therefore he must have not only a sense of humor, but an infinitely great and perfect sense of humor. --CraigF 14:04, 11 March 2012 (EDT)

• FrancisB52 16:01, 11 March 2012 (EDT)

Not applicable

God is not a human being and is above human psychological traits. The "logic" argument appears to create God in the image of man, which verges on the blasphemous. The argument is fallacious: Just replace "sense of humor" with some less pleasant traits, like "Man has to relieve himself regularly in the bathroom. Does God have to go to the bathroom?" Obviously not! As regards the history argument, you should read the comedies of Aristophanes, written around 400 BC. They are very funny! --FrederickT3 18:09, 10 March 2012 (EST)

Emotions like humor are not physical. God surely does have other emotions like love, anger, sorrow, joy, etc., and man has them as well after being created in God's image.

Pre-Christian Greek "humor" tends to be very simple, and barely funny by today's more sophisticated standards as developed by the Christian world.--Andy Schlafly 22:34, 10 March 2012 (EST)

Atilla the Hun

I had no idea this guy was a leading political leader! Which elections did he run in? Which party did he belong to? - was it the Democrats? Just joking - this article is supposed to be about a sense of humour. By the way, watch the British comedy 'The thick of it' if you want to fully appreciate political humour. On second thoughts maybe 'yes minister' might be more your style - it's less sweary. EJamesW 18:13, 10 March 2012 (EST)

Politics is a broader concept than democracy. Or do you think that Julius Caesar was not a political leader?--Andy Schlafly 18:25, 10 March 2012 (EST)

Here's the last known clip of Julius Caesar meeting a voter! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvs4bOMv5Xw He he EJamesW 18:33, 10 March 2012 (EST)

Seriously?

• logic: man has a sense of humor, and man was created in the image of God. Hence God has a sense of humor.

Man, possesses many qualities that God would have no need for, both psychological and biological. Conversely God has boundless abilities that man does not posses. Therefore it's pointless to speculate on qualities God may have based on those manifested by mankind.

• history: man's sense of humor improved with the discovery and expansion of Christianity, which indicates their strong correlation.

This doesn't even make sense.

• politics: atheistic political figures are known for their lack of a sense of humor, such as Attila the Hun, which suggests that the opposite of God is a lack of sense of humor.

And the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini was a regular barrel of laughs.

• religious: the encounter on the road to Emmaus, described at Luke 25:13-31, strongly suggests that God has intervened in amusing ways.

You may have a point with this one, I am sure atheists, theists of other faiths, and non-literalist Christians, find much to laugh at.

• scientific: snowstorms have disrupted global warming conferences; regions that promote the global warming hoax have been subjected to brutally cold weather.

So when God causes record breaking warm winters, are those the jokes that bomb?

• athletic: Tim Tebow's completion of ten passes for 316 yards, at 31.6 yards per competition, in his stunning playoff victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers, echoed his promotion of John 3:16.

I wasn't aware that statistical anomalies, commonly known as coincidences, were considered "humor".--JoshuaB 19:38, 10 March 2012 (EST)

Each point is addressed below:

• logic: man has a sense of humor, and man was created in the image of God. Hence God has a sense of humor.

Man, possesses many qualities that God would have no need for, both psychological and biological. Conversely God has boundless abilities that man does not posses. Therefore it's pointless to speculate on qualities God may have based on those manifested by mankind.

No, this would deny many other emotions that God sure does have: love, joy, sorrow, anger, etc., all documented in the Bible.

• history: man's sense of humor improved with the discovery and expansion of Christianity, which indicates their strong correlation

This doesn't even make sense.

A non-response requires no answer, but humor developed immensely along with Christianity, and arguably did not exist except in a very simple way before Christianity.

• politics: atheistic political figures are known for their lack of a sense of humor, such as Attila the Hun, which suggests that the opposite of God is a lack of sense of humor.

And the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini was a regular barrel of laughs.

Again, a non-response requires no answer. Are you claiming something about his sense of humor?

• religious: the encounter on the road to Emmaus, described at Luke 25:13-31, strongly suggests that God has intervened in amusing ways.

You may have a point with this one, I am sure atheists, theists of other faiths, and non-literalist Christians, find much to laugh at.

That doesn't merit a response either.

• scientific: snowstorms have disrupted global warming conferences; regions that promote the global warming hoax have been subjected to brutally cold weather.

So when God causes record breaking warm winters, are those the jokes that bomb?

You have to explain yourself better if you want a response.

• athletic: Tim Tebow's completion of ten passes for 316 yards, at 31.6 yards per competition, in his stunning playoff victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers, echoed his promotion of John 3:16.

I wasn't aware that statistical anomalies, commonly known as coincidences, were considered "humor".--JoshuaB 19:38, 10 March 2012 (EST)

The likelihood of such "statistical anomalies" is vanishingly small.--Andy Schlafly 22:29, 10 March 2012 (EST)

"The likelihood of such "statistical anomalies" is vanishingly small." Well, let's see. A QB is going to throw for some number of yards between 0 and (say) 600 and complete somewhere between 0 and (say) 40 passes. Given how Tebow was used last year, the range is probably much smaller for each, but let's go with that. So the odds of coincidentally completing 10 passes for 316 yards is (at most) 1 in 24,000. Then we'd have to divide that by the number of other verses he's had on his eye black (there are at least two: Proverbs 3:5-6[1] and Philippians 4:13 [2]). So now we're down to at most 1 in 8,000. We could stop there, but I'd probably divide by the number of NFL games he's started (1 in 571) or at least the number of playoff games he's started (1 in 4,000). I suppose it's open to interpretations, but I wouldn't call that "vanishingly small" and think it's well within the realm of coincidence. JustinD 01:07, 11 March 2012 (EST)

Your analysis is interesting, but does not include the small likelihood of the Broncos making the playoffs and defeating America's most (or second most) popular team, the Steelers - and thereby generating the enormous publicity. That probability alone was probably only 1 in 1000. Using your 1 in 24,000 likelihood for throwing for 10 passes for 316 yards, the overall probability of what happened is less than 1 in a million - far less than a reasonable coincidence. The other verses, by the way, do not compare with John 3:16 in significance.--Andy Schlafly 08:41, 11 March 2012 (EDT)

But the question remains: what is so funny about something being unlikely? I think most people, atheists and Christians alike, would call such a statistical anomaly striking rather than funny. As far as the other examples are concerned: if that is supposed to be God's repertoire, I am afraid He would make a lousy stand-up comedian. Baobab 10:46, 11 March 2012 (EDT)

Perhaps it takes a good sense of humor to appreciate it. Some (other than God) do take sports games very, very seriously, but to most people they are a source of entertainment and amusement. Cal Berkeley's unlikely last-second victory over John Elway's Stanford team in 1981 or 1982, with the repeated laterals on the final kick-off return, was very serious to some (including Elway and the players), but was replayed repeatedly on television for amusement rather than serious news.--Andy Schlafly 13:21, 11 March 2012 (EDT)

The problem with using this sort of probability computation for this sort of coincidence to determine whether it arose due to chance is that you are doing it ex post. To borrow an example from John Allen Paulos's Innumeracy, it would be nonsense to look at a bridge hand of 13 cards from a deck of 52, conclude that the probability of that particular hand's having been dealt is less than 1 over 600 billion, and therefore conclude that it must not have arisen due to chance. Seeing a coincidence and then trying to examine after the fact what the probability would have been for such a coincidence to occur to illustrate miraculous behavior is a classic example of the sharpshooter fallacy. GregG 16:00, 11 March 2012 (EDT)

Andy, I just want to make sure I understand correctly: The duck-billed platypus was designed to amuse us, red autumn foliage was designed to impress us with its breath-taking beauty, Tebow's 316 yard pass was guided to promote John 3:16. Fine. On the other hand, last year's tsunami was entirely due to entropy, right? No humorous message there? --FrederickT3 16:25, 11 March 2012 (EDT)

Seriously? Revisited...

Mr. Schlafly, for some reason you chose to respond to my post to basically state that my post... wasn't worth... responding to... huh? Anyway, to cut to the chase, I'm not sure what's creating this "mystery" for you. The Bible contains several examples of God laughing which, to me, would seem like case closed. So instead of writing an article cataloging God's humor as expressed in scripture, you instead trot out a list of dubious claims. I think the only true mystery here is why you wrote this article. --JoshuaB 19:06, 11 March 2012 (EDT)