Here is the first of hopefully many posts. This all went through my head on Sunday night, December fifth:
"I can remember talking with one of my friends when I was in the seventh grade. I remember the day I renounced my belief in Heaven, Hell, and God, or any other higher power. He told me, “You shouldn’t stop believing though, because that’s a sin. You’ll go to hell for it.” I know that his intentions were for the best, that he was simply looking out for me in the only way he knew how to, but I pointed out to him his foolishness anyway. I said to him, “Why should I be scared of something that isn’t real?” His response was typical of anyone who is religious, “...Because it’s a sin.” He has since become a minister.
My thinking remains the same. I could have said more, such as, “You might as well try to make me scared of the Tooth Fairy, or Santa Claus, or monster who hides in my closet or under my bed” but I didn’t want to be rude to my friend about something I knew he was so passionate about.
That brings me to some problems I have with some childhood tales. While they are fun to participate in as a child, there are some unhealthy messages that come from these childhood characters (I wanted to use the word fables instead of characters, but then I realized that fables have a moral to them, and the characters we learn about as a child don’t have any favorable messages whatsoever).
Take, for example, the Tooth Fairy. One of your teeth falls out (a perfectly natural thing that happens to every single child on the planet), and all you must do is slip it under your pillow, fall asleep, and when you wake up in the morning, lo and behold there is money. Not only does this teach children that they do not have to work for the things they want, but it teaches them very early on the material value of money, the root of all evil in the world.
Santa Claus, the most religious of all the fairy tails, is, not surprisingly, the worst of them all.
The true story of Santa, as stated by The Merry Network, is that a Bishop named Nicholas found out about a poor family with three daughters in the town that he lived in. Nicholas waited until one of the daughters came of “marrying age” and tossed a bag of gold into their house anonymously. He did this for each of the daughters to make sure the family didn’t live the rest of their life in poverty. This story has been twisted and deliberately misconstrued over the years into something astronomically different, but even the original story teaches the same lesson the Tooth Fairy does: simply believe, and all of your troubles will go away.
There are some characteristics of Santa that are strikingly similar to God. Take for example, all of his mystical powers.
The idea that there exists a man who is constantly watching every little thing you do, hearing everything you say, and is possibly aware of every thought that passes through your head, is absolutely terrifying to a child. I myself can recall being horrified by the fact that I had literally no privacy. I felt as though every time I would lay on my bed and stare up at the ceiling, there would be eyes staring back down at me. As a result of this fear which had been instilled in me, I made it my best effort not to misbehave. Until I realized the similarities between Santa and God, and the fact that the Santa we learn about as children isn’t real. Why would the origin of such a Christian holiday be explained to children (by their christian parents) with a story of a man who uses magic to accomplish his tasks when the use of magic is strictly forbidden by the Bible and labeled as a sin??
Santa Claus is clearly a story told to impressionable young children to regulate their behavior. So is God. Once people can wake up and realize this, the better off all of humanity will be."
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