One small step for man...........................One giant step for australopithecus!

RIGHTEOUS FOLKS DON'T MAKE JOKES! At least that's what some people still believe. But the fact remains that we've come a long way from those "all fear and trembling" days, or even from those dreary days of deadpan devotion to the Deity. And people have begun to accept humorous criticism in many areas of their lives previously sealed off as 'sacred.' Today we joke about sex, death, taxes, politics, race, and even religion. So why aren't there more religious joke books on the market? Probably because burning eternally in hell does not make a terrific punch line.

But on the brighter side it must be admitted even by the righteous few that the Bible itself contains hints of humor! Psalm 105 speaks of God creating great sea monsters just so they may 'play in the sea'. Proverbs speaks of Wisdom playing and dancing before the Lord. According to the Gospels, Jesus spoke about a camel being threaded through a needle's eye, and moving mountains with only a teeny weeny 'mustard seed' of faith. He also told outrageous parables demonstrating how the righteous could learn from the behavior of thieves and moneylenders! (This was undoubtedly big-time rabbinic humor in his day!)

In our century some have even been bold enough to exclaim that "The test of a good religion is its ability to laugh at itself," and "A good joke is the one ultimate and sacred thing which cannot be criticized. Our relations with a good joke are direct and even divine relations" (G.K. Chesterton spoke both quotes). For perhaps all laughter is God's laughter, and no form of hearty humor is unholy!

IN THE BEGINNING GOD WAS A STAND UP COMIC, WITH A GREAT IMPROVISATIONAL ACT THAT HE CALLED, 'THE CREATION.' IT WAS ONLY SCHEDULED TO PLAY SEVEN DAYS (in a little bistro on the edge of the Milky Way), BUT IT RECEIVED SUCH RAVE REVIEWS THAT GOD DECIDED TO LET IT RUN FOREVER. Remember Job?
He was down on his luck and on the verge of cursing God. But at the last moment God swept down from heaven and spoke out of a whirlwhind-playing with Job's hair, blowing his rags around, and ticking Job's ribs. And God performed one of his funniest stand up bits, just for Job, to make him laugh. God said: "Have you ever in your life commanded the morning? Has the rain a father? Can you lift up your voice to the clouds so that rain falls on your head? Can you send forth lightnings that they may go and say to you 'Here we are?' Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth? Who sent out the wild donkey, free? The ostrich's wings flap joyously with the pinion and plumage of love. For she abandons her eggs to the earth, and she forgets that a foot may crush them. Though her labor be in vain she is unconcerned, because I have made her forget wisdom. She laughs at the horse and rider. Do you give the horse his might? Do you make him leap like a locust? Behold now Behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass like an ox! With barbs can anyone pierce his nose? Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook? Can you put a rope in his nose? Will he speak to you with soft words? Will you play with him as with a bird? By this time, of course, God, the ticklish whirlwind, had Job in stitches. In fact, Job was laughing so hard he cried, "I lay my hand on my mouth!" (see Job, chapters 38-41, for the verses given above).

Continued... Why Man Must Question God