Jesus = Santa Claus For Adults

Jesus = Santa
Heaven = North Pole
Angels = Elves
Devil = Grinch or Abomindable Snowman


Behave and be "good" - you get presents

Misbehave and be "bad" - you get lump of coal - and what does coal do? It burns!!!! :shock:

"He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sakes"

Mystical and magical....

Coincidence ????? :lol:

Santa = Jesus. One precedes the other, but I agree in you comparison (although it follows a very basic hierarchical/ good-bad concept that's present in many facets of culture, real society, and most fairy tales.)

I think the only appreciable difference is that Santa won't burn and torture the people who don't believe in him for all of eternity. Santa rewards good deeds and "punishes" bad deeds by withholding presents. Jesus doesn't care about your deeds or how you lived your life, he only cares what your religious status was when you die. A serial rapist that asks for forgiveness on his death bed is welcome to heaven, but the philanthropist non-believer has no chance of mercy.

There's also an equal amount of evidence supporting the existence of both.

Dragonfly said:

Jesus = Santa
Heaven = North Pole
Angels = Elves
Devil = Grinch or Abomindable Snowman


Behave and be "good" - you get presents

Misbehave and be "bad" - you get lump of coal - and what does coal do? It burns!!!! :shock:

"He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sakes"

Mystical and magical....

Coincidence ????? :lol:

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Got simple mindedness?

Where is Santa's "Sermon on the Iceburg"?

Seems I'm missing something here.

Jesus came first, obviously. Then the church and the saints. Santa as he is known today may have been modelled after a real saint.

Know thy history

RabidAlpaca said:

I think the only appreciable difference is that Santa won't burn and torture the people who don't believe in him for all of eternity. Santa rewards good deeds and "punishes" bad deeds by withholding presents. Jesus doesn't care about your deeds or how you lived your life, he only cares what your religious status was when you die. A serial rapist that asks for forgiveness on his death bed is welcome to heaven, but the philanthropist non-believer has no chance of mercy.

There's also an equal amount of evidence supporting the existence of both.

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There are certainly other similar myths to the stories that inform Santa that included creatures that kill or torture bad children. Keep in mind that our modern conception of the character was created by Coca-Cola. It has the sharper edges smoothed down. That's also true of Jesus, of course. Both are old stories repurposed mainly as a marketing tool.

Gardener said:

Where is Santa's "Sermon on the Iceburg"?

Seems I'm missing something here.

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It's written in penguin so only Santa's chosen people can read it.

Dragonfly said:

Coincidence ????? :lol:

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You might appreciate this "Cyanide and Happiness" comic.
Cyanide & Happiness #3577 - Explosm.net

The need for supernatural magical father figures is universally found in cultures all over the world since the beginning of time.
This need to pretend is a detriment to the the advancement of humanity.

Dragonfly said:

Jesus = Santa
Heaven = North Pole
Angels = Elves
Devil = Grinch or Abomindable Snowman


Behave and be "good" - you get presents

Misbehave and be "bad" - you get lump of coal - and what does coal do? It burns!!!! :shock:

"He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sakes"

Mystical and magical....

Coincidence ????? :lol:

Click to expand...

good to see religious bigotry is alive an well.

behave and be good and you don't get presents
misbehave and be bad doesn't get you coal.
yes he knows but understands that you will do wrong things and is waiting for you to ask forgiveness.

nothing like santa at all

ludin said:

good to see religious bigotry is alive an well.

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Bigotry implies intolerance. Dragonfly isn't being intolerant merely by pointing out the similarities.

29A said:

Bigotry implies intolerance. Dragonfly isn't being intolerant merely by pointing out the similarities.

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when those similarities are made up false and only to make fun of yep that is intolerance.

ludin said:

when those similarities are made up false and only to make fun of yep that is intolerance.

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Humor is free-speech, and to call it intolerant is, well, intolerant.

29A said:

Humor is free-speech, and to call it intolerant is, well, intolerant.

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You seem quite confused as to the difference between humor and ridicule.

Gardener said:

You seem quite confused as to the difference between humor and ridicule.

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Both are within the limits of free-speech, what am I missing?

29A said:

what am I missing?

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Well, for starters, the fact that nobody here has said anything about the government having to step in to prevent anything.

Are you really that ignorant of what the term "free speech" means?

Gardener said:

Well, for starters, the fact that nobody here has said anything about the government having to step in to prevent anything.

Are you really that ignorant of what the term "free speech" means?

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Why do we need the government to step in when you and ludin endeavor to stop free-speech in its tracks by attempting to label humor or ridicule as intolerant?

29A said:

Why do we need the government to step in when you and ludin endeavor to stop free-speech in its tracks by attempting to label humor or ridicule as intolerant?

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There have been no attempts to limit free speech.

You might try growing up a little bit and learning what terms mean instead of all this peurility. The same principles inherent in the notion of free speech that allow ridicule also allow others to object to the ridicule.

Dragonfly said:

Jesus = Santa
Heaven = North Pole
Angels = Elves
Devil = Grinch or Abomindable Snowman

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More hubris.

Why do you believe in Jesus but not Santa Claus?

Sometimes atheists will ask why Christians believe in Jesus and not Santa Claus. Some atheists say you cannot prove Jesus existed anymore than you can prove Santa Claus exists. Of course, this is not accurate for several reasons.

First of all, Jesus is presented as an historical figure by reputable people in both secular and sacred historical writings. Santa Claus is simply presented as a fictional character.

Second, Jesus is presented as a real person who claimed to be divine and who performed miracles. These accounts are attested to by reputable witnesses and have been transmitted to us reliably; the New Testament documents are 99.5% textually pure. Santa Claus is intentionally, and knowingly, presented as a fictional character who lives at the North Pole.

Third, the intention of the gospel writers was to convey the physical reality of Jesus to responsible adults, whereas the accounts of Santa are intended to entertain the wild imaginations of children. This is why the vast majority of healthy, mentally competent adults do not believe in a real person known as Santa who can travel through air being pulled by several flying reindeer, who can carry in his sled enough presents for all the good children in the entire world, and who can descend and ascend through chimneys even though he is quite overweight.1

Fourth, the writings concerning Jesus exhibit an historical, cultural, religious, and political context with verifiable names, events, and places being an integral part of the record of that context and reality. Santa Claus stories do not contain any such integral contextualization, except to state that there is a north pole and that there are cities and countries where Santa visits at night.

More in the link.

Why do you believe in Jesus but not Santa Claus? | Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry

Gardener said:

There have been no attempts to limit free speech.

You might try growing up a little bit and learning what terms mean instead of all this peurility. The same principles inherent in the notion of free speech that allow ridicule also allow others to object to the ridicule.

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If the correct term is ridicule, then why was it called "religious bigotry"? Accusing someone of religious bigotry is a slur, not dis-similar to Jay Rockefeller's suggesting that those who oppose "Obamacare" are racists. Imo, both are attempts to shut down a conversation via character assassination while failing to address substantive disagreements.

adults like perceiving religions as fairy tales because they are still children :mrgreen:

Medusa said:

adults like perceiving religions as fairy tales because they are still children :mrgreen:

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Ad hominems are the shtick of amateur debaters who don't know it's a fallacy.

I would agree perceiving a religion as equal to a myth or fairy tale would be incorrect, as religions have real effects on today's world, unlike myths or fairy tales. However, Dragonfly only made a comparison. Seeing how you're from Turkey, I shall not attempt to guess your religion, but would note the general aspersions the various religions attribute each other. Regardless, in Matthew 18:3, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. "

Well that's not supposed to be how Jesus operates. If you look at strictly what Jesus said, and not the various idolaters who came after him and appropriated his message, it's plain to see that Jesus is supposed to function as a yidam. He's a being of profound love, transcendence and truth that you visualize yourself becoming one with, and thus elevate your consciousness to being more in sync with Godliness.

Unfortunately, too many people have been indoctrinated by what I like to call the "creepy American Jesus"... the one who loves you unconditionally, but leaves you with the fear that he may secretly hate you and want you to go to hell at any moment; the one who will provide salvation for your lazy, completely non-introspective life as long as you don't question your own mind or authority, and keep giving donations as much as possible.

Jesus is a yidam. Christianity needs serious reform and needs to return to the golden rule that God is unconditional love, period, and start over again from there.