By recognizing that people need certain celebrations in our lives no matter what we call them or ostensibly celebrate.As Parent/Grandparent how do you deal with Christmas/Santa Claus with your children?
Has Christmas become a secular holiday?
Does peer pressure cause envy by non-religiously reared children towards Christian kids?
Same here. From the standpoint of human history we've always been keyed into the position of the sun. It allowed us to hunt and grow crops. We thought the sun and other objects were gods in the past, pretty understandable considering the depths of our ignorance. But today there's nothing religious about the solstices and the movement of the sun on the horizon. It "stands still" or sleeps for three days before returning and bringing back the light. Sounds pretty familiar to religionists, wonder where they got the idea, particularly christians.Yah, we talked a lot about physics and astronomy and how they culminated in the stars our skies, and the early sunsets and the snow on the ground.
We also celebrated the Summer Solstice, ftr.
Yah, we talked a lot about physics and astronomy and how they culminated in the stars our skies, and the early sunsets and the snow on the ground.
We also celebrated the Summer Solstice, ftr.
One year, I asked to say the Humanist Blessing at the in-laws. I made it up. It went like this. "Since the sharing of food is a human. universal, practiced in all known cultures, it's my pleasure to share food with all of you today".
I don't think you need worry. Even without a parental endorsement of Santa or God, I still encountered plenty of liars, both amongst my peers and amongst adults in positions of authority; I certainly don't have any more personal belief in authoritatively delivered 'fact' than my peers who were raised with both ideas presented to them as true.In some respects I believe it is correct for parents to lie to children.
Parents have the responsibility to expose their kids to things that would be abjectly dangerous if encountered "in the wild", and one of the things that is abjectly dangerous "in the wild" is unchecked personal belief in authoritatively delivered 'fact'.
For many of us, The Santa Hoax was in fact the impetus to come to understand The God Hoax. This is an important thing to learn as a child: that people they respect can lie and that their peers can deliver to them lies told by those they respect, and that every belief deserves as big a helping of doubt as may be dished up, as often as the dishing serves.
There are limits: one or two big lies, one or two small ones, just enough to teach the principle, and revealed often and early enough that the lesson sticks.
It's exactly the authority of parents that needs to be betrayed. It's that authority dimension of conservative thought that needs to be broken.I don't think you need worry. Even without a parental endorsement of Santa or God, I still encountered plenty of liars, both amongst my peers and amongst adults in positions of authority; I certainly don't have any more personal belief in authoritatively delivered 'fact' than my peers who were raised with both ideas presented to them as true.In some respects I believe it is correct for parents to lie to children.
Parents have the responsibility to expose their kids to things that would be abjectly dangerous if encountered "in the wild", and one of the things that is abjectly dangerous "in the wild" is unchecked personal belief in authoritatively delivered 'fact'.
For many of us, The Santa Hoax was in fact the impetus to come to understand The God Hoax. This is an important thing to learn as a child: that people they respect can lie and that their peers can deliver to them lies told by those they respect, and that every belief deserves as big a helping of doubt as may be dished up, as often as the dishing serves.
There are limits: one or two big lies, one or two small ones, just enough to teach the principle, and revealed often and early enough that the lesson sticks.
I never thought of my parents telling me about Santa as a lie. I just thought of it as playing pretend. Don't we all pretend to some extent? We fantasize about things that we want to happen, even if to some extent, we may realize we are just fantasizing. Sometimes we pretend we aren't who we really are. Sometimes fantasy, dreams and pretense help get us through the day, But, we are all a bit different in how we are impacted by things like this, so if other people feel they are lying to their children by playing along with the Santa fantasy, I can. understand their point of view.In some respects I believe it is correct for parents to lie to children.
Parents have the responsibility to expose their kids to things that would be abjectly dangerous if encountered "in the wild", and one of the things that is abjectly dangerous "in the wild" is unchecked personal belief in authoritatively delivered 'fact'.
For many of us, The Santa Hoax was in fact the impetus to come to understand The God Hoax. This is an important thing to learn as a child: that people they respect can lie and that their peers can deliver to them lies told by those they respect, and that every belief deserves as big a helping of doubt as may be dished up, as often as the dishing serves.
There are limits: one or two big lies, one or two small ones, just enough to teach the principle, and revealed often and early enough that the lesson sticks.
My point is that as an atheist, the smaller myth of Santa is a good stepping-off point for the bigger myth of Jesus, as there are strong parallels between the corrupt motive of "for gifts" and "for heaven".I never thought of my parents telling me about Santa as a lie. I just thought of it as playing pretend. Don't we all pretend to some extent? We fantasize about things that we want to happen, even if to some extent, we may realize we are just fantasizing. Sometimes we pretend we aren't who we really are. Sometimes fantasy, dreams and pretense help get us through the day, But, we are all a bit different in how we are impacted by things like this, so if other people feel they are lying to their children by playing along with the Santa fantasy, I can. understand their point of view.In some respects I believe it is correct for parents to lie to children.
Parents have the responsibility to expose their kids to things that would be abjectly dangerous if encountered "in the wild", and one of the things that is abjectly dangerous "in the wild" is unchecked personal belief in authoritatively delivered 'fact'.
For many of us, The Santa Hoax was in fact the impetus to come to understand The God Hoax. This is an important thing to learn as a child: that people they respect can lie and that their peers can deliver to them lies told by those they respect, and that every belief deserves as big a helping of doubt as may be dished up, as often as the dishing serves.
There are limits: one or two big lies, one or two small ones, just enough to teach the principle, and revealed often and early enough that the lesson sticks.
I stopped believing in Santa at a very early age because once I thought about it, it made no sense that one entity could travel around the world in a sled, climb down chimneys, and deliver gifts to children around the world. When I asked my mom if Santa really existed she asked me what I thought. I told her it was made up and it was parents who gave their children gifts. She told me I was right.
It took longer to realize that god was made up because I was deeply indoctrinated into that belief. When I told some of my teenage church friends something like, we had been fooled and there was no way a god was going to send all non believers to hell, one of them looked at me, and said, "You think too much. Don't think so much about it." I will never forget that moment. it proved my point.