How to Approach Religion: Laugh and Laugh Again

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question about the controversy over the movie The Love Guru.

The inability of some religious people to laugh at themselves betrays, I think, a great deal of insecurity. What if God was a two-year-old toddler and you were his mother? You'd spend your day keeping close watch and only find calm when your child was taking a nap. But God isn't two years old, and he /she doesn't need taking care of. I wish religious people took the analogy seriously, because they are constantly rushing in to protect God, screaming in outrage when he /she is surely laughing. God may very well see the universe as a divine comedy. Every exploding nova could be an explosion of laughter. Nobody knows. But when we look around us, Nature is at play. Every wild animal -- at least when young -- spends its day playing, apparently in innocent delight. A tiger cub and a human infant have that in common. The difference is that the tiger grows up in peace with its ferocity. Humans grow up to find themselves burdened with guilt, shame, and anxiety.

To relieve these afflictions, we turn to religion but also to comedy. The Love Guru is a ridiculous farce, and it has offended some Hindus, but I'd wager it will do more good for people than a week's worth of sermons. (Personal disclosure: I am lampooned in the movie much more than Hinduism. You might catch me at a screening. I'm the man in the aisle seat laughing loudly.) In an age obsessed with triviality, a silly, light-hearted comedy arouses controversy while religion keeps fostering an unending litany of war, intolerance, and violence.

For all these reasons, more comedies should cross the line between vulgar lampoon and reckless disrespect. Let's catch God with his pants down -- or more especially those who peddle faith in God so self-righteously. Christianity has been mocked in Monty Python's Life of Bryan, Judaism in Adam Sandler's Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Islam (very mildly) in Albert Brooks' Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World. Let's look for comedy in the whole world. As for the Hindu fundamentalists who are shocked by "The Love Guru," let them remember Lila. She is a goddess whose play -- and playfulness -- runs the activity of the universe. The last time I looked, Lila was a Hindu goddess. That must have escaped the minds of true believers who condemn what they should be enjoying. In the end, comedy equals laughter and religion equals solemnity. You choose.

www.intentblog.com

www.deepakchopra.com

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/deepak_chopra/

Comments

[arvay]

There is no God and I am its Prophet (somebody has to step up to this)

[TheBlackCat]

"I wish religious people took the analogy seriously, because they are constantly rushing in to protect God, screaming in outrage when he /she is surely laughing."

Amen.

Taken a look at the Hubble telescope pictures lately? The belief that God cares about what we say about him, or say, whether we're gay or not seems a little egotistical and a lot paranoid.

It's like thinking a human would care what direction a single raindrop should roll when it hits the ground. I can't imagine that is the least bit less trivial to us than our sexual orientation or activities is to the creator of the known universe.

God is watching me mastrubate? Sorry, don't buy it.

[RobinSeattle]

Religion is laughable by itself because all it consists of is people not being able to cope with the fact that they are going to die someday and that will be it. It is perhaps the most elaborate coping mechanism we have as human beings because byzantine fairy stories are created, often at stultifyingly great length, and digested by the masses wishing for a little socially approved denial.

At the end of the day, religion is just codified superstition through which those using it as a racket accrue money, power and fame. There are a lot of people out there with IQ's in the 90's and below.

[Riverwolf]

"In an age obsessed with triviality, a silly, light-hearted comedy arouses controversy while religion keeps fostering an unending litany of war, intolerance, and violence."

This sentence shows so well the ridiculousness of religion, or at least our inability to follow it as we should. The "Love Guru" is just a movie. Let"s worry about something more important.

[DavidHealy]

I've never met a true believer (in anything) who had a sense of humor. True belief apparently requires no self awareness.

[mommamia526]

Laughter is excellent for health! People with a sense of humor live longer. You do not necessarily have to laugh out loud all the time. There are common themes and cautions in the various religions. Where we try to push our views on others, and get into *sin* or *darkness* of spirit, even murder, to twist another's arms and mind, we have lost our minds. *Sin* is a destructive force, blackness, a void. It does not create. It kills and destroys. No laughter there, always anger. God is the Creator, and the destroyer is the opposite force. We should indeed laugh about God, because we have been given advice and laws to live by, which work. Buddhism and Judaism have one thing in common, expressed this way: *make this world a better place, start with yourself*. Buddhism and Jesus' teachings also have common themes, such as love for others, and giving up on physical (earthly) ties, such as possessions and family ties. Anything that is physical deteriorates, eventually. Being bound to it, therefore, is hilarious. To understand what the good doctor Chopra is saying, on a first, superficial basis, pretend to be really angry, and look at how you look in the mirror. Not healthy, right? Now laugh, and look again. Better? Getting up into arms about who and what God is, and is not, and even what he *thinks*, is not quite rational, am I right?

[dstanley]

I love the Sufi story collections that I have because they're funny. They make fun of the absurdity of human behavior, especially religious behavior. I get more insight out of one of their funny stories than I do out of volumes of over-serious theology.

[hudsonriver1]

I haven't seen the movie, so I can't comment on its tone or presentation. I agree that an essential part of achieving enlightenment is to "lighten up," to keep one's soul untouched by petty emotions such as pride, self-importance or arrogance. Thus we must be able to laugh at ourselves, and at the silliness omnipresent in the material world.
On the other hand, Western culture (particularly American culture) is dismissive and scornful of Eastern religions and culture, particularly their anti-consumer and anti-ego viewpoints. Americans are constantly barraged by messages antithetical to the beliefs and lessons exemplified by Dr. Chopra, and the danger of playing the clown in such a situation is to invite (or allow) complete marginalization and ensure that these "heretical" messages will not be taken seriously or considered worthy of study. By "walking into the punch," as it were, it cements advertising and cultural messages deeply embedded to remain unchallenged and without meaningful criticism, analysis or alternative. That is not a possibility I relish, since American cultural hegemony is already spreading unchecked throughout the world, steamrolling all other cultures, religions, morals and values in its path, and leaving the planet in a spiritually bankrupt condition which may take centuries to recover from. Even the best-intentioned satire can backfire, as the movie "Wall Street" did when it coined the phrase "Greed is Good" (many viewers took that message home as a philosophy to emulate). I can only hope that Mike Meyers evaded this trap---