Is thinking a person that has been long banned will read your words, let alone respond to you, magical also?
Whats wrong with being an atheist?
Read Hogfather to learn why belief is the early, little falsehoods about the world is essential Even to atheists.
Please explain how words posted on this message board, and only on this message board, almost 12 years ago impacts how you practice your religion in any way, shape or form. Do you imagine that other people that you have encountered also read those words all those years ago and are applying them to you and your beliefs now?
I don’t believe in any gods, but this reasoning strikes me as awfully shallow.
Kids learn all the time that some things are make-believe and some are not. The existence of the make-believe does not mean that the real is also make-believe. For example, a kid can watch a James Bond movie, realize it is a complete fantasy, and yet somehow still hold in his or her mind the notion that actual spies really exist in the world (even if they don’t resemble James Bond in the slightest): they can watch a documentary about (say) the Cambridge Five, and not think it is a complete fantasy. The fact that one spy story is fake doesn’t mean they all are.
Now, you and I would most likely agree that all Gods are purely mythological. But you can’t get there from simply realizing some stories are mythological, any more than you can deduce that all spies are fictitious because James Bond is.
I’ve been ridiculed for doubting that Obamacare is a good law.
So, thanks for this. You made me feel better about embracing my doubts.
We’re only seven days from the election. Let’s not let the political stuff seep into every single thread, please.
I don’t think that you are getting the point the author is making. It isn’t a direct arrow between Santa Doesn’t exist -> God doesn’t exist. If that was the goal he could have just come out and told his child that Santa doesn’t exist just like god doesn’t exist and left it at that.
Instead he led that child there slowly by using his own reasoning so he reach the conclusion on his own. The point is to train the child to use his brain to ask his own questions see what makes sense and what doesn’t in order to arrive at his own conclusions, rather than believe in things because other people believe them. If later in life he decides that the evidence seems to lead towards god, that is the conclusion he will make, but the author believes that it is more likely that he will reach the same conclusion he did about Santa Claus.
I simply don’t think the author is correct. Reasoning in that way is unlikely to work, because the child can see for him or herself that adults don’t literally believe in Santa. The child is more likely to, quite reasonably, conclude that Santa is a “fiction” (just like thousands of other stories seen on TV and in books), a “fiction” which adults pretend, for fun, to believe in.
Many of the same adults literally believe in God.
A child, observing this, could (and most do) easily conclude that Santa is a fiction but God isn’t, and more importantly, there is nothing inconsistent in such a conclusion: we make similar distinctions all the time (James Bond is fiction, the Cambridge Five were real; Robocop was fiction, the local police officer is real; etc. etc… ).
The working out for oneself that some things are “fictitious” and others are “real” tells you exactly nothing about how to make the vital determination of which things are “fictitious” and “real”.
For a child, the inherent probability of something isn’t a good guide to making that distinction; to a child, much of what they see is simply beyond their understanding and so simply taken for granted (much of modern technology falls into this category, even for adults). Children are much more receptive to appeals to authority: what adults really believe, they are likely to take as true.
If we’re keeping score:
[ul]
[li]I agree with the OP (I miss Diogenes) that Polar Express has a terrible message, which is that belief is a virtue in and of itself[/li][li]I am not an atheist[/li][li]I think learning to examine why you believe things is important, and Santa and other fictional childhood heroes help what development[/li][li]One could make the argument that belief in Santa, instead of inocculating children against religious belief as adults, actually primes them to seek the “reality” behind the beloved myths of the their childhood. This was a big theme of C.S. Lewis, who talked of Jesus being a myth that came true.[/li][li]As I said, The Polar Express’s message of “just believe!” is stupid.[/li][/ul]
A professor of mine had a sign posted outside his office. It read “Question Authority”.
Underneath someone wrote “Why?”
Regards,
Shodan
Jumping on the zombie train, it’s a long-established thing in all Hollywood movies, not just this one, that doubters and sceptics are always wrong and often wicked. Good is on the side of those who take things on trust, who don’t question what they’re told. With the massive influence Hollywood has on Americans and the world is it any wonder there are so many gullible people out there, ready to swallow the most outlandish beliefs and craziest conspiracy theories? They know these things could be true, they’ve seen it in the movies.
The whole Santa Claus myth is really quite distasteful and not something we should be teaching our kids anyway. I know there is a huge ‘cultural’ imperative in our societies, and, yes, my kids went through it in the approved fashion, but it really doesn’t teach the kids much at all - beyond, ‘thank christ the Santa option isn’t real’.
- Kids get taught that good behaviour will be rewarded - not that good behaviour is just a way to live and co-operate within your society that benefits everyone. Yes, I know kids need lessons and messages to be simple - but they don’t have to be outright deceptive.
- By the way, you are watched ALL THE TIME to ensure that you demonstrate good behaviour (I suppose this relates to all the ‘All-seeing’ god-figures that exist).
- At Christmas, your parents show you some affection by purchasing you gifts - but some strange overlord, omnipotent figure will give you better ones.
- How come the rich kid down the street gets better presents from Santa than I do? Regardless of his behaviour?
Lets be honest, Santa is just a kid’s book - ‘My First Religion!’.
You silently stalked a thread for twelve years just to post now? Just one post?
About an animated Christmas movie?
OK…
Say about that movie… what if the train engine had big red flags? Is there any chance that this would make it look more festive and Christmas-ey?
Personally, I thought the movie had very inconsistent pacing, shifting abruptly from frantic spectacle to grim doldrums.
Oh, wait, that was The Bipolar Express.
…and if you got caught taking drugs for it, that’s Midnight Express…?
“In Turkish Prisons, no one likes the yule log…”
Sure is, but fair to say, Polar Express is by no means alone amongst Christmas movies in having this feature. I reckon about 50% of movies featuring the jolly red man do it - Miracle On 34th Street, for example.