[lbo-talk] God's humor [was RE: Bulletin: Nothing in those square pants!]

Carl Remick carlremick at hotmail.com
Wed Feb 2 20:33:52 PST 2005



>From: JBrown72073 at cs.com
>
>In a message dated 1/29/05 8:24:51 AM, lbo-talk-request at lbo-talk.org
>writes:
>
> >It's a pity the fundies don't share God's wacky sense of humor.
> >
> >Carl
>
>I think it's S.J. Gould who quotes Alfred North Whitehead: "The total
>absence of humor in the Bible is one of the most singular things in all
>literature."

Well I certainly have to respect A. N. Whitehead's comedic chops as the leading standup philosopher-mathematician of his age, but IMO the Bible is a mound of mirth when looked at the right way (the wrong way).

OTOH, my primary care guru Ralph Waldo Emerson, too, finds the Bible's alpha-to-omega solemnity tiresome. In an 1835 journal entry Emerson disputed the contention that "moral development contains all the intellectual and that [therefore] Jesus was the perfect man." Emerson said that in essence he found Jesus a bore, viz.:

"I bow in reverence unfeigned before that benign man [Jesus]. I know more, hope more, am more, because he has lived. But, if you tell me that in your opinion he has fulfilled all the conditions of a man's existence, carried out to the utmost ... all man's powers, I suspend my assent. I do not see in him cheerfulness: I do not see the love of natural science: I see in him no kindness for art; I see in him nothing of Socrates, of Laplace, of Shakespeare. The perfect man should remind us of all great men. Do you ask me if I would rather resemble Jesus than any other man? If I should say Yes, I should suspect myself of superstition."

BTW, the person Emerson admired and tried to emulate most was his aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, who I understand was largely self-taught but widely respected as a powerful and original thinker. Emerson reportedly copied his aunt's letters and diary into his own journal and used them as a source for his published writings.

Carl



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