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Did Santa Claus Kill God?
December 19, 2006

Religion is taking a beating in the United States. Fewer people believe in God than ever before. Fabricated reports in the media about a resurgence in church attendance and religious fervor go unsupported by any credible statistics. Many psychologists attribute this widespread retreat from religion to a breakdown of the traditional American family. They are wrong. The real truth is that Santa Claus probably killed God.

How did this happen? Ask any Christian parent if their children do or ever did believed in Santa. The answer in almost every case is “yes.” There are numerous psychological theories to explain why parents propagate the Santa Claus myth, but “why” is not the issue here. The issue is the psychological effect of a Santa Claus fantasy on children; particularly at the point in their lives when they discover their parents lied about his existence.

Think back to your childhood (if you can still remember). Who appears first in your cognitive memory; Santa Claus or God? Santa Claus, of course. Your parents and relatives talked about Santa, television showed stories about Santa, you actually saw Santa in stores; and Santa left presents for you under the Christmas tree.

Even your kindergarten teacher told you to write letters to Santa. Pretty convincing evidence for a child, wouldn’t you say? What was the punishment for being bad? Everyone (even non-Christians) knows that; Santa wouldn’t bring any presents at Christmas. You were more accountable to Santa for your behavior than to your own parents.

The Santa myth was further reinforced by the next fantasy, the Easter Bunny. This eccentric hopper laid colorful, hard-boiled eggs on the lawn; hid chocolate and candy (in obvious places) for you to find and made guest appearances on television and in parades, just like Santa. Do you see the emerging pattern of visual and material confirmations of these adult-conceived fantasies. What child could logically dispute the existence of Santa and the bunny?

The Tooth Fairy flew in on the heels of the Easter Bunny to trade pocket change for your worn out baby teeth. The Tooth Fairy fantasy was easy enough to accept because you already believed in fairies. Remember Tinkerbell from Peter Pan, or the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella?

Most young children today (ages 3-8) seem to think the important people in their lives are Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and their grandparents. Most parents at this point haven’t even introduced the concept of God to their children. Do the children care anything about God? Not Likely. Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and the grandparents give them lots of neat things; even sometimes when they’re naughty. God doesn’t give them anything.

About the time a child’s baby teeth have all fallen out, the fantasy deceptions begin to unravel. The first glimmer of truth normally occurs when the alleged monster under the bed doesn’t gobble the child up when he or she sneaks out of bed against daddy’s orders. If daddy lied about the monster, what else did daddy lie about?

More clarity flows in when a child becomes sufficiently educated or intelligent to calculate the impossibility of a stork flying with a 7-9 pound payload. The game is up.

Kids start talking to each other in school about these fantasies and arrive at a common conclusion that all adults, including their parents, are big liars. Adults have lied about everything. Even the teachers have lied. Any child unable or unwilling to accept this new truth is unmercifully teased and branded a “baby” by his or her peers.

This period of “awakening” normally occurs around the same time parents begin to suggest the concept of God. It is however, too late. The children already know that ALL adults lie and can’t be trusted. Some children pretend to play along with the religion fantasy because they fear parental retribution, but even the play-actors ultimately reject any notion of God or religion because there is no material reward for believing. Parents lied about Santa Claus; they’re obviously lying about God.

Children quickly perceive that adults are now attempting to substitute God for Santa Claus with the punishment for misbehavior changing from “no presents” to “going to hell.” The “going to hell” gambit is totally ineffective because parents can not prove the existence of hell (or heaven for that matter). Kids are all about “now” and have no inclination or motivation to think about an afterlife.

When threatened with going to hell, children secretly conclude that if hell really exists (although unlikely), that is where their parents will go for lying to them about Santa Claus and all the other fantasy creatures.

Child/parental trust and mutual respect is totally destroyed. There is no possible way to recover from this disaster because parents can not justify all the lies they have told. The excuse that “everyone does it” won’t wash because lying is bad and “two wrongs don’t make a right.” Remember; you tried to teach your children that. Now it has backfired on you. The only things that even keep your children at home after they’ve been betrayed is your ability and willingness to provide material benefits like food, clothing, shelter, an allowance, a car and a college education.

When does God die? Every time mommy or daddy tells Donnie and Marie that Santa will bring them presents for Christmas if they behave. Mommy and daddy know they are lying and will be found out sooner or later. But they lie anyway, not recognizing the inescapable fact that kids learn from their parents’ behavior and example. That is why, after the kids grow up and have children of their own, they repeat their own parents’ deplorable “lying about Santa” behavior and yet another generation is psychologically manipulated into rejecting God.

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