PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, AND HUMOR
John Morreall says that when laughter is mentioned in the Bible, it is associated with one of three things. In descending order, they are: Hostility, Foolishness, and Joy. For laughter and hostility, consider Psalms 59:4-8 which implores God to “have no mercy on villains and traitors…. But you, O Lord, laugh at them, and deride all the nations.”
For laughter and foolishness, consider Genesis 17:17 when God tells Abraham at age 99 that he and his aged wife Sarah will have a son. Abraham “fell on his face and laughed.” On hearing the news, Sarah also laughed with disbelief, and “when God confronted her, she compounded her foolishness by denying that she had laughed.” When their child was born, they named him Isaac (meaning “He will laugh or rejoice”) (Genesis 18:12-15).
Laughter is again associated with foolishness in a Bible passage which reads: “Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad.” “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth” (Ecclesiastes 7:3-6). But laughter can also be associated with joy in the Bible as in: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongues with shouts of joy” (Psalms 126:2). In the New Testament, Jesus says, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” (Luke 6:21).
There are four great religious truths:
Muslims do not recognize Jews as God’s chosen people.
Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian world.
Baptists do not recognize each other at Hooters.
Look at this PowerPoint about “Humor in Philosophy and Religion.” Do you know of other examples of humor as it relates to philosophy and religion?
"Causes of Death of Philosophers" (http://people.ds.cam.ac.uk/dhm11/DeathsAC.html):
Anscombe: By intention
Anselm: Than which no deadlier can be conceived
Austin: Executionary act
Ayer: Unverifiable
Buber: Unfortunate encounter
Churchland(s): Eliminated
Darwin: Became unfit
Democritus: Atomised
Derrida: Deconstructed
Einstein: Diced with God
Feyerabend: Everything went
Goodman: Gruesome bleen infection
Hegel: Gave up the Geist
Heisenberg: Uncertain causes
Jackson: Saw red
Kierkegaard: Sick to death
Kim: Supervened on nothing
Kripke: Dropped causal chain
Laozi: Attained utmost vacuity
Levinas: Merged with others
Luther: Diet of worms
Mackie: An inus condition
McDowell: Left the space of reasons
McTaggart: Untimely causes
Moore: By his own hand, obviously
Nagel, Tom: Struck by bat
Ockham: Shaved beyond necessity
Paley: Bad design
Plantinga: Of necessity
Plato: Caved in
Ryle: Gave up the ghost
Sellars: Not given
Skinner, B F: Bad behaviour
Spinoza: Substance abuse
Tarski: 'Death'
Tillich: Being underground
Turing: Failed his own test
Van Inwagen: Own free will
Wittgenstein: Became the late Wittgenstein
Karl: You forgot Schraediger (sp?) who was killed by a non-existent cat.
Dear Professor Nilsen, more examples of humor as it relates
to philosophy, sex, and religion can be found in this article: Article Toward a Theoretical and Analytical Framework for the Study ...
Majed: Excellent. Thanks. Here's a PowerPoint about "Humor and History." Enjoy.
A very interesting thread that concerns humor and religion can be found in the book "The Laughter of Life and Death". It mentions, among others, about Catholic priests who helped concentration camp prisoners by making them laugh during World War II. In the book there is also a very significant example of mocking the rabbis by the Nazis. I am attaching the English version of the book, you may be interested. I also enclose the book "Morycek at school", in which there are Jewish jokes, e.g. about religious schools (heder), their teachers and students.
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