Santa Claus

Originally posted by epiphinehas
My daughter is about to turn five. For the past five years I've made it very clear to her that Santa does not exist. I'm raising her to be a follower of Jesus Christ and figured it would be counterproductive to spend the majority of her childhood spinning white lies about a person who doesn't exist while simultaneously teaching her about a Person Who d ...[text shortened]... f the ground. Good grief. Seeing is believing, I guess.

Have a happy Jesus day!

Relax...She'll get over it. Into each life, some rain must fall! 😏

December 25th is the birth of the roman pagan sun god (sol invictus) and/or a date celebrating the winter solstice
Christmas trees are decended from the pagan act of tree worship
Decorating trees is a pagan activity
Baubles for trees are decended from 'witch balls', used to fend of evil spirits
Christmas is therefore nothing to do with Christianity and has it's roots in paganism, however so do all the days of the weeks, months of the year, the idea of celebrating birthdays and virtually every other significant calendar event including the calendar itself!

Christians are to be in the world, but not of the world. I love Christmas for what it means to me not it's historical roots; to deny children christmas and birthdays on spiritual grounds is a matter of individual conscience and wisdom (as the JWs do for example), but in my opinion to do so is setting young people to potentially grow up with a legalistic and bitter view of christianity. Better to educate them about it correctly. Same with santa. Only my opionion of course.

Edit: If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Jn 8:36

Happy notable non-specific calendar event to you all...😕

Originally posted by dystoniac
Nobody stole December 25th! Christians began observing December 25th as the birth of Christ simply because it was convenient, nothing more. The birth of Christ is far less important than the death and resurrection of Jesus. Who is this god mithras? Is this a new-age entity? Jesus was the ONLY person born of a virgin. One doesn't literally eat of the ...[text shortened]... r during Communion by partaking of leaven bread and grape jiuce (or wine, if one is a purist).

Mithraism and Christianity are very close to the same age. Historically speaking, they were equally popular around 300 when Christianity was given the nod as the state religion of the Romans. Hardly New Age.
No actually historical evidence for your resurrection myth.

Originally posted by divegeester
December 25th is the birth of the roman pagan sun god (sol invictus) and/or a date celebrating the winter solstice
Christmas trees are decended from the pagan act of tree worship
Decorating trees is a pagan activity
Baubles for trees are decended from 'witch balls', used to fend of evil spirits
Christmas is therefore nothing to do with Christianity a shall be free indeed. Jn 8:36

Happy notable non-specific calendar event to you all...😕

My cousins grew up without the trappings of Christmas. Their parents took them to the store every year to pick out a couple of things, and they got home and that was that. They are in their late 40s and have never had any sense of pleasure or joy over Christmas because they never had any foundation of pleasant memories -- just that all their friends and relatives had joy and pleasant memories and they were left out. Since they never received, they have no concept of empathy that contributes to the motivation of givers: I felt joy (or whatever) when I received and thus want others to feel that too, so I will pick out something that will help them feel that. Since they never experienced that, it's not like they can pick up the pieces as adults and suddenly learn how to do it.

All holidays for all religions are based on something that came before, because traditions evolve from something just as languages do. What's relevant is the personal meaning of the person doing it. Otherwise brides would refuse to have their fathers "give them away" on their wedding day, as if they were chattel still.

The origins of current Christmas traditions may have nothing to do with Christianity. That doesn't mean that the current practices have no meanings within Christianity. Nearly all symbols of Christmas do, regardless of their original intent.

Originally posted by caissad4
Mithraism and Christianity are very close to the same age. Historically speaking, they were equally popular around 300 when Christianity was given the nod as the state religion of the Romans. Hardly New Age.
No actually historical evidence for your resurrection myth.

Baloney! According to the Bible, over 500 people witnessed Jesus post-resurrection. One has to be a magnificent con artist to convince over 500 people to go along with a hoax. Can you produce irrefutable evidence that Jesus did not rise from the dead? I didn't think so.

Originally posted by dystoniac
Baloney! According to the Bible, over 500 people witnessed Jesus post-resurrection. One has to be a magnificent con artist to convince over 500 people to go along with a hoax. Can you produce irrefutable evidence that Jesus did not rise from the dead? I didn't think so.

Isn't this nice! Ignorance cleverly disguised as faith! 😵

Originally posted by caissad4
Have you bothered to tell your daughter that Jecus was NOT even born in December. Late September was more likely.
The God Mithras was born of a virgin on Christmas day and arose into the heavens. December 25 was stolen by Christians.
"Unless you eat of my flesh and drimk of my blood you will not be with me in the next world" Mithras
(part of the Vatican was a Mithran temple)
Christians are quick to point out myths except their own.

Whether Epi has told his daughter about Dec 25th is not his issue, if you re-read the initial post.

Most christians couldn't care less about Dec 25th let alone "steal" it. It is a pagan date and irrelevant to the gospel of salvation.

"Unless you eat of my flesh and drimk of my blood you will not be with me in the next world" Mithras. Could you please reference this quotation as I would be interested in seeing it's origin, thanks.

Christianity is full of myths to non-believers and athiests, as is every religion including yours, which incidentally is particulary lacking in documented substantiation; although i recognise your right to believe in it of course.

As for December 25th, you are most welcome to it. I'll stay with the living God himself, who's name for salvation he has revealed as 'Jesus' (God saves), and is described in the Bible as "the way the truth and the life".

Originally posted by divegeester
"Unless you eat of my flesh and drimk of my blood you will not be with me in the next world" Mithras. Could you please reference this quotation as I would be interested in seeing it's origin, thanks.

Christianity is full of myths to non-believers and athiests, as is every religion including yours, which incidentally is particulary lacking in documented substantiation; although i recognise your right to believe in it of course.

The quote by Mithras is documented by the fact that it can still be read on a wall of the Vatican, carved in stone.
Mithraism is not my religion and I agree that both Christianity and Mithraism are severely lacking in documentation.
I enjoy history.

Originally posted by dystoniac
Baloney! According to the Bible, over 500 people witnessed Jesus post-resurrection. One has to be a magnificent con artist to convince over 500 people to go along with a hoax. Can you produce irrefutable evidence that Jesus did not rise from the dead? I didn't think so.

Can you produce irrefutable evidence that Thor, Zeus, Apollo, and The Great Pumpkin did not rise from the dead ???
I don't think so.

Originally posted by epiphinehas
Santa is built up in kids' imaginations as the jolly fellow who mysteriously knows whether you've been naughty or nice, whether you're sleeping or awake, etc., basically he's imbued with a certain Godlike omniscience. Parents routinely fool their kids into believing, wholeheartedly in most instances, that this guy actually exists.

lol, the Irony. Replace "Santa" with "Jesus", and feel my pain.

I don’t know if this is on point or not, but what pawnhandler posted made me think of it.

It seems that, developmentally, the “age of imagination” precedes the “age of reason”. And sometimes, for children, what is imagined seems quite real. I am not talking about hallucination, but things creatively and playfully imagined, as well as imaginings presented by parents, culture, etc. Children seem sufficiently able to suspend their own disbelief—much as we must do when we attend a theatrical performance—as to grant a sense of reality to even their most playful imaginings it seems.

Now, if such imagination becomes pathological so that it prevents or suppresses developing reason, then there is a problem. But, at the same time, does one want to risk stunting or suppressing the wonderful capacity for creative imagination, in the interest of “truth”? I would think not.

How one, as a parent, tries to balance such considerations probably cannot be too generalized. Every child is different.

Just some thoughts…

Originally posted by caissad4
Can you produce irrefutable evidence that Thor, Zeus, Apollo, and The Great Pumpkin did not rise from the dead ???
I don't think so.

Uh, did several hundred people witness seeing those mythical deities you mention after they died? I don't think so. To answer your question more directly, no, I cannot produce irrefutable evidence that Zeus et al rose from the dead because there is not one shred of evidence that they did.

Originally posted by Badwater
Isn't this nice! Ignorance cleverly disguised as faith! 😵

Is that all you can come up with? Jesus was seen by more than 500 people AFTER his physical death, and all you can say is "ignorance cleverly disguised as faith"? Good comeback...

Originally posted by caissad4
Have you bothered to tell your daughter that Jecus was NOT even born in December. Late September was more likely.
The God Mithras was born of a virgin on Christmas day and arose into the heavens. December 25 was stolen by Christians.
"Unless you eat of my flesh and drimk of my blood you will not be with me in the next world" Mithras
(part of the Vatican was a Mithran temple)
Christians are quick to point out myths except their own.

Eventually I'll tell my daughter that Christmas isn't really Jesus' birthday, yes.

Originally posted by pawnhandler
Santa Claus is a part of our cultural mythology. Every culture has a few -- La Llorona http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_llorona is popular with my students. Not my place to say that she's not real, the Easter Bunny isn't, the Tooth Fairy, Santa, La Befana, Uncle Sam, Paul Bunyan, Russ -- OK, I do believe in Russ -- cultures have iconic myths for a reaso ...[text shortened]... have the entire package except one part and then say that part doesn't count.

Thank you, I never thought of using Santa as means of spiritual education. Good idea.

I'm not totally against Christmas, BTW. We decorate a pre-lit plastic tree, give presents, sing Christmas carols, read A Christmas Carol, listen to Bing Crosby, etc. We just decided to talk about Santa as the fairy tale he is, on par with, say, Peter Pan, or Mickey Mouse, rather than bend over backwards to try to fool our daughter into thinking he's real. Personally, I'd feel guilty if I did my best to get her to believe Luke Skywalker is a real person. I don't see the Santa thing as any different.