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VIEWPOINTS: How important is having a sense of humor to your faith? Does your creator have a sense of humor?

Charlie Chaplin once said, "A day without laughter is a day wasted."

And there's plenty to laugh about if we take a pause from the drama of the day-to-day and take a look around.

Read the full Viewpoints question here or continue on to the response below.

I consider humor to be an essential

I consider humor to be an essential – I enjoy it, and it’s a coping technique, when coping is needed. The tension between my fallen nature as a “natural” woman (Mosiah 3:19) and my efforts to live my faith provide ongoing opportunities for humor.  Humor is so innate to humans that I believe our creator, in whose image we are made, must also have a sense of humor.

I find nuggets of humor throughout the scriptures.  Of course, humor is in the eye of the beholder, but I find it gently funny when, in John 4:33, a disciple is confused by Jesus’s use of the word “meat” to indicate something other than food. “Hath any man brought him ought to eat?” the disciple asks another in confusion.  And I think Jesus must have had at least a brief smile on his face and maybe a wink to one of his shorter or younger-and-impatient-to-grow disciples when, in Matthew 6:27, he says, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?”

A comedy-worthy incident occurs when Paul, freed from prison by an angel  in Acts 12, knocks on the door of the gate of some friends, and the young woman who responds  is so  excited to see him that she forgets to let him in and instead runs to announce his presence to his unbelieving friends, leaving poor Paul to continue knocking.

Topics: Faith, Doctrine & Practice
Beliefs: Mormon
Tags: faith and humor, humor, faith and mormon

Other Responses to This Viewpoint

I need to be able to laugh

Whenever I wonder if there is a sense of humor in the world I look at all the beauty we find and are inspired by in the natural world, and then how hard we work to change it. Think of the lowly dandelions in our yard, those beautiful puff balls of seeds that float so beautifully on a summer breeze.
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God’s humor

Have you ever pondered the wide variety of creatures on this earth? Everything from dogs and cats (whose antics often produce laughter) to zebras, giraffes, platypuses, and some pretty spectacular (and amusing) sea creatures.
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God makes life hysterical

God makes life hysterical. God languishes in the joy that is produced through existence.
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