{"id":1714,"date":"2016-08-19T11:29:38","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T11:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1714"},"modified":"2016-04-19T14:41:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-19T14:41:52","slug":"santa-claus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1714","title":{"rendered":"Santa Claus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"12-30-15<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Are you trying to look into your Christmas stocking Prodigal?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 No I was actually putting something in the Christmas stocking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Does Santa do that?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 No, I don’t believe in Santa.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 I was just reading about believe in Santa in the book Beyond Opinion Living The Faith We Defend by Ravi Zacharias<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Faith is infantile, Dawkins tell us.\u00a0 It can only survive by being crammed into the minds of impressionable young children.\u00a0 We’ve grown up now, and we need to move on.\u00a0 Why should we believe things that can’t be scientifically proved?\u00a0 Faith in God, Dawkins argues, is just like believing in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.\u00a0 When you grow up, you grow out of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is actually a rather childish argument that seems to have found its way into what is meant to be an adult discussion.\u00a0 It is amateurish and unconvincing.\u00a0 There is no serious empirical evidence that people regard God, Santa Claus, and the Tooth Fairy as being the same category.\u00a0 I stopped believing in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy when I was about six years old.\u00a0 After being an atheist for some years, I discovered God when I was eighteen and have never regarded this as some kind of infantile regression.\u00a0 As I noticed while researching my book The Twilight of Atheism, a large number of people come to believe in God in later life–when they are grown up.\u00a0 I have yet to meet anyone who came to believe in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy late in life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Proverbs 21:2<\/p>\n

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jennifer Van Allen<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

www.faithincounseling.org<\/p>\n

www.theprodigalpig.com<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Me:\u00a0 Are you trying to look into your Christmas stocking Prodigal?   Prodigal:\u00a0 No I was actually putting something in the Christmas stocking.   Me:\u00a0 Does Santa do that?   Prodigal:\u00a0 No, I don’t believe in Santa.   Me:\u00a0 I was just reading about believe in Santa in the book Beyond Opinion Living The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSanta Claus - The Prodigal Pig<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1714\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Santa Claus - 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