Reply #317: Sure. Now tell us what Santa Clauses's standards are.

[Inland]

Ooooopey. Wow, there's an analogy that tripped up right out of the starting gate, because religions put huge amounts of effort and argument into developing, defending, and even adhering to, standards of behavior. "Let's all do good" is Santa. "What does it mean to be good, and how do I do good" is religion. Admonishing a child is Santa. Pulling at the consciences of a nation in the civil rights movement is religion.

Even the rewards in religion show it to be teh complicated, adult, serious topic that the analogy pretends it isn't. Santa gives you what you want. The christian god doesn't. He gives you what you should want. As his reward, the buddhist gets to not want anything at all. Wow, how complicated. I bet there's big books of discussion on the subject, none of them written by or for children. But has anyone read a good theological tract on Santa lately?

No. One's for grownups. One's not. Comparing the two is an insult.

It's easy enough for atheists to forget that the belief in a deity is the starting point, not the ending point, but a few moments of examination of what religion does pretty much confirms that there's a lot more to it than the mere "just another belief in a nonexistent being" analogy allows. Heck, don't ask the religious, look at what the usual suspects say in other threads, where religion is the bane of mankind. Whether you like religion or hate it, only a complete and utter ignorance would put it in the same category as a childrens' story. People don't kill or become martyred over the childish and inconsequential. Religion can't be both the boogeyman stalking the race and gaining mind control over the masses and also something silly and childish like not stepping on cracks.

By the way, anyone vote for John Kerry last time around? Just asking who thinks he's a believer in fairy tales and still should be president.