I think I wrote an essay for a middle-school english teacher to the effect that any belief that I had in [the belief in] Santa Claus dragged my belief in [my belief in] God along as it went away (Which would have been around… when I was three or five; my parents didn’t really try very hard to convince my siblings or me that Santa actually existed).
I don’t remember a time when I believed in more than a belief in Santa, or, though my parents tried a little harder on this front, in God. My mother read to me from a kid’s bible (with stories like Noah’s Ark (the one with all the incest in it, for anyone who doesn’t know) set as poems), but I could tell she didn’t believe the stories (she probably figured she ought to make an effort, just ’cause).
Nonetheless, my father only recently began to imply outright that Santa Claus wasn’t real.
Why is it that people use “belief in god” as “belief in Christianity” and “no belief in Christianity” as “atheism”? Even disregarding other religions, there’s a whole range of positions between them.
I think I wrote an essay for a middle-school english teacher to the effect that any belief that I had in [the belief in] Santa Claus dragged my belief in [my belief in] God along as it went away (Which would have been around… when I was three or five; my parents didn’t really try very hard to convince my siblings or me that Santa actually existed).
I don’t remember a time when I believed in more than a belief in Santa, or, though my parents tried a little harder on this front, in God. My mother read to me from a kid’s bible (with stories like Noah’s Ark (the one with all the incest in it, for anyone who doesn’t know) set as poems), but I could tell she didn’t believe the stories (she probably figured she ought to make an effort, just ’cause).
Nonetheless, my father only recently began to imply outright that Santa Claus wasn’t real.
Why is it that people use “belief in god” as “belief in Christianity” and “no belief in Christianity” as “atheism”? Even disregarding other religions, there’s a whole range of positions between them.