However faithful or faithless you may be, I dare you to watch this without laughing! Far from being heretical or otherwise offensive, having a laugh at God’s expense is not only sometimes the healthiest thing to do, it’s quite traditional. Sarah laughs at God in the Book of Genesis, and if it was good enough for her, then even the most pious among us should relax about laughing at God. That’s exactly what Bo Burnham does in his song, “From God’s Perspective” below (language NSFW).
Believe me, I know that Bo Burnham is a comedian, not a wisdom teacher nor a philosopher, but when you step onto a stage and theorize about things as serious as how we think about God – an issue which divides families, drives political races, and over which people are dying all over the world – and over a million people watch you do it, it pays to pay attention to what’s going on.
Along with your laughter, notice how Burnham does exactly what he mocks others for doing – presuming to know the mind of God. You gotta love the reminder that all of us – from the most reverent to those who pride themselves on being most iconoclastic – create the God we need for our own purposes, at least as much as we bend our hearts and minds to God’s.
Does God exist? Does God not exist? Nobody can know for sure. That’s why they call it faith. The part of the song that is actually wise is where it suggests that whatever it is we believe or disbelieve should be tested, at least in part, against the real world results of those beliefs. That willingness is what keeps deep faith from becoming an ugly arrogance.
At the same time, if our belief or disbelief simply affirms our ideas without ever challenging them, it is ourselves we are worshipping, not the God of theists or the no-god of atheists. That’s the part where the song falls far short of the wisdom we need to manage the deepening fanaticism of so many believer and non-believers.
There is no doubt that humor, including humor at “God’s expense”, is a really healthy and useful thing. In fact, if you consider yourself a believer, and can’t muster at least the occasional ironic chuckle about the God in whom you believe, your faith is almost certainly creating as many problems as it solves. So enjoy this song and share it with the particularly uptight believers you may know. On the other hand, if you find yourself listening and thinking, “yeah, this Burnham kid has it exactly right”, take a moment to laugh at yourself as much as you are laughing at God and the other people who think of God in ways that Burnham mocks. At the end of the day, it is probably our ability to laugh at ourselves that is the most important laugh-ability any of us can ever have.

Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”