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Santa was a human being, at best preternaturally gifted, and elves were not supernatural either.
The point of pointing out the parallels is to show that there is no appreciable difference between God belief and Santa belief. Both beliefs are irrational and neither being has the evidence to back up its existence.
I have life and that cannot be created, it has to be given.
That may be another thought to consider for you and many.
The two beliefs, God and Santa, are as different as night and day.
The two beings have their differences but the belief is the same, it is one based on faith.
An eight year old hoping he was good enough to get presents instead of coal isn't fundamentally dissimilar from a ninety year old man on his death bed hoping he was good enough to get into Heaven.
Kids waiting for Santa to come remind me heavily of Christians waiting for the Rapture as well.
"Seeing isn't believing, believing is seeing"
By what empirical means have you determined that a six year-old has the cognitive capacity to experience "faith?"
The fact is, theisms differ greatly from one another in what they believe.
I've even heard Christians say that we should have the "Faith of a child".
I thought the OP made it clear we were talking about the Christian God.
Originally posted by eight bits
By what empirical means have you determined that a six year-old has the cognitive capacity to experience "faith?"
There simply are no grown-up "believers" in Santa Claus
I've never actually met a Christian who believes there will be a rapture, and plenty who don't.
Because her parents told her so.
Because we were all TOLD the truth at some point or another about Santa.
With God, our parents continued to tell us that he is real.
My experience is JUST the opposite. My family and every church I attended were very adamant about the Rapture. Maybe times have changed...
Do you have any evidence that when they say that, they do not mean something figurative
Since what we find is a variety, not only of creeds, but of warrants to believe and of consequences of belief, we can confidently dispose of the claim that the reasons for belief in Santa are plausibly the same as the reasons some adults have for belief in God.
Nevertheless, the child lacks the requisite cognitive capacity to evaluate truth claims on a par with an adult.
In no case, unless you were the child of Mohammed or something like that, did your parents make up the story they told you.
Some Christians ...
I never said the reasons for belief were the same in all cases, merely the mechanism: FAITH.
Reasons for belief may very ...