Last Friday, I posted CJ’s review of An Atheist’s Guide to Christmas, which has several perspectives on how we unbelievers deal with the holiday season. Mine is a fair bit briefer and vastly simpler than most of those found therein, we just do everything pretty much the same as we ever did, except for the bits about Jesus. We do family gatherings, trees, stockings, decorations, gifts, even Santa and his dreaded minion, the Elf on the Shelf.
Some of my colleagues have argued that by playing along with the whole Santa thing we are increasing the risk that our children will cease blindly trusting that what we say is true, and have to learn to start trusting their own judgement when it comes to fantastical statements made by trusted authority figures, e.g. “This doll is actually a living being on assignment from the North Pole.” Seems to me, however, that we giving our children a unique opportunity to learn how to do skepticism, in practice, for themselves. If there is a closer analogy to the Christian religion than a made-up grandfatherly figure who keeps a running tally of rights and wrongs, I’ve yet to hear of it. It’s time that we leverage this fortuitous situation to our advantage.
Don’t just believe us, kids! Ask us for evidence. I promise we won’t hold it against you.
