Religious beliefs are devoid of factual content. They are feel-good utterances of the sort children enjoy in the form of fairy tales, including the tooth fairy or Santa Claus. A good question to ask is why do children believe in these things? How did this come to be? Are parents potential lying to a blind sight their child? Do these beliefs besides feel-good utterances have any substance? Or is it that anticipation and excitement for that child worth it? These questions are interesting to look at and observe from different stand points.
After viewing the Polar Express, the message was left that if you truly believe then you will obtain the full Christmas spirit. The true believer alone has the ability to hear a bell ring. The children that had doubt of Santa’s existence have the ability to see for themselves through an adventure on the train. A key moment is when the conductor mentions that, “sometimes seeing is believing, sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we cannot see.” To an innocent child just that might be easy, or even for a true believer, but for the average person, evidence, reasoning might affect their perspective on what to believe or not.
Solid convincing reasons need to be given in order for a belief to have credentials. To a child a fact that the parents read to him/her about Santa and how “he knows when you have been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake,” maybe is just enough to win over a child to believe in Santa, and being good the whole year will be rewarded by gifts from “Santa,” but why do we stop believe in Santa? Or even the tooth fairy?
Does not believing anymore have anything to do with age, or do the parents who tell their kids about Santa, somewhere deep inside believe ...
... middle of paper ...
...as explains that there is no requirement for each individual to have good reasons for what he or she believes. There are two types of reasoning when it comes to considering truths about God; they are human reason and natural reason. This philosopher leaves it the individual to make the decision what to believe.
Overall I believe that religious beliefs should not need reasoning and that they should be up to the individual. An objection a serious person might raise is that my statement is vague and where do these beliefs come from? I would reply that the strongest beliefs and knowledge of religion come from people who do not understand. These beliefs come from mystical experiences which are always valid even though they are ineffable as the philosopher Rad calls them. Ineffable means something entirely or almost beyond our ability to describe or to interpret it.
Then he goes on to conclude by saying that, “The lessons learned from observing people and their beliefs support the position that I have defended: rational people may rationally believe in God without evidence or argument” (Feinberg 142). In schools today, students grow up listening to lectures that are subjective and then later are tested on what the teacher thinks and believes. Whether or not the taught perspective is factual or not, it teaches students from a young age to just take what the teachers, adults, and any authority says as truth, as a way to respecting authority. In the same way that it is reasonable to believe respectable authority, it is rational to have belief in God without specific evidence because we are created with the inclination that a higher being exists and God has shown Himself to be true to every generation. Furthermore, God has placed in every human the inkling to believe what is right or wrong, so when it comes to deciding whether to act a certain way, we can rely on our gut feeling if it is a good action or not. It is a very common and suggested thing to trust one's gut feeling when making a decision, even though it does not require any evidence to see if it is actually the right decision to
It is crucial that every belief must be thoroughly explored and justified to avoid any future repercussions. Clifford provides two examples in which, regardless of the outcome, the party that creates a belief without comprehensive justification ends up at fault. It is possible to apply the situations in The Ethics of Belief to any cases of belief and end up with the conclusion that justification is of utmost importance. Justifying beliefs is so important because even the smallest beliefs affect others in the community, add to the global belief system, and alter the believer moral compass in future decisions.
Evidently, myths have become the culprit of traditions. That being said, the contemporary and ancient myths of Santa Claus and Krampus can only be understood by determining the elements that devise their entireties. Both narratives involve elements of opposition, trickery, mythemes, repetition, symbols, and ritualistic processes all of which support the structure of each holiday myth and tradition. Overall, the individual elements facilitate a valid, detailed compare and contrast analysis when examining the myths of Santa Claus and Krampus in a North American culture.
Jay Mocks article “Is Santa Clause a Conspiracy?” first appeared on The River Journal website on December 11th, 2009. Mock, an online blogger who has the mindset that there are conspiracies behind many things that go on in the world, seeks to encourage readers to discover whether there is a conspiracy behind Santa Claus. If so, whether or not it is maintained by the lies of parents, and whether or not their intentions are good because they support good, and even so would that still qualify as a bad thing? “We sometimes knowingly lie or overlook a lie if the reason is to support ‘good’” (Mock p4). The legend of Santa Claus can be the lure to which mankind falls into a ploy of conspiracy that may fortify a manipulative mindset and devious conduct in people. This article is a good example of how conspiracy theorist can appeal to readers through persuasion by the use of three kinds of proofs, reasoning (logos), credibility (ethos), and emotion (pathos). Although this article is a great attention grabber, it lacks the ability to impose the authors’ thoughts and feelings upon its readers.
Is Santa truly a secular figure or is he a religious one? This has been a long-standing argument. However, instead of viewing Saint Nick as either secular or religious, it would be more beneficial to examine him as a figure consisting of both religious and secular elements. It is true that the contemporary Santa Claus may be more associated with secular concepts, such as consumerism, but it is also crucial to emphasize the origins of the jolly old man. He is the product of Western Christianization. It is thought that he was created from a combination of the historical figure of Saint Nicholas, a Christian saint, who was known for giving gifts, and the fictional character of Father Christmas from British folklore (CITE). Santa Claus can be viewed
... being. We also used to believe that the universe was Geocentric, when Copernicus suggested that this was wrong and our universe was heliocentric, the church ostracized him. Science is capable of explaining all things it is just a matter of time before all questions that we believe to be unanswerable find an answer through scientific research. The Large Hadron Collider is even researching the big bang. We will eventually answer all of our questions through science. C.S Lewis also had a great outlook on life, his belief in God led him onto success and happiness. Perhaps a belief religion is not believing in a God, but finding a belief that will make your life happy and answer the questions that you need. I personally believe that Freud and his path of science is correct, conversely if a person wishes to believe in a God or religion I can see their point of view.
Assessment of the View that it is Rational to Believe that there is a God
First, religion has often played an important role in people’s lives, however its significance continues to decrease in recent decades. Parents do not pass on faith or beliefs onto their children, because most parents do not have faith or beliefs. These parents believe it would be hypocritical to teach their children about being spiritual, when they are not spiritual themselves. Children often go to their parents with questions regarding matters such as death, life, and God, but "Western culture is so secularized that parents can evade or dismiss 'religious' questions without feeling that they’re merely getting themselves off the hook" (Brandt 193). In contrast wit...
rational grounds, as in matters of passion, desired out come and choice. James claims that belief
...between faith and reason but I think Clifford has a way more logical way of considering faith and belief in God than Pascal. Clifford offers a very sound argument for why it is important not to call pragmatic considerations justification for God, and also and argument for why it is so important that we have really good evidence when making justifications. I believe that both reasoning, and faith are required to believe in anything and that the reasoning side of the equation needs to be diligently and mindfully considered. I also believe that to find empirical evidence of God may be impossible, so it’s important that faith and belief are based on strong reasoning even without empirical evidence. Believing in something because it’s comforting in the will only cause a great deal of people to blindly follow and never ask questions leading to a very misguided society.
Whenever I was very young, I guess you could say that I was also very gullible. I believed most of what people told me was right. All of the holiday myths would miraculously be plausible, even if they couldn’t be. People, mainly adults, only gave me the abridged version of the truth. One of these myths I was sure was true up until about fourth grade is Santa Claus. I didn’t question why the logic of Santa was so askew. I’d write letters to Santa Claus, leave out cookies and milk and carrots, along with a sundry of other off-the-wall Christmas traditions. These included, sprinkling reindeer dust outside, and going to bed early so Santa wouldn’t skip our house. As a result of the withering beliefs in Santa across the globe, adults try to aggrandize the Santa Claus myth in attempt to make the ambiance of Christmas more special. In days of yore people have scrutinized all of the aspects of Santa Claus and some of the truths are appalling. Some very astute people have made this out-of-the box myth seem more real to children, but some of these truths must go unmasked.
William Clifford author of the “Ethics of Belief” creates the argument that it is always wrong for anyone to believe anything upon ‘insufficient evidence’. What does Clifford define evidence as and what is sufficient? Clifford’s argument is more scientific. Basing our beliefs off methodical approaches. If we base all our decisions off sufficient and what we declare to be reliable then what do we stand for? We have our own credentials to believe things even if we do not know why. These beliefs could be innate and
Beliefs In Adolescence And Young Adulthood: A Panel Study."Review Of Religious Research 31.1 (1989): 68. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. (Periodical)
I believe that religion should not be considered the basis of reality since it is highly faith-based. People have different beliefs and that provides multiple versions of how they interpret their reality. I also feel that the “truth” that religion tends to glorify is not the truth because of its lack of empirical claims. In accordance to science, on the other hand, it is heavily evidence based. With science, we understand that it is solely based on observation. The theories and phenomenon that we know of today are solely from observation. Without this characteristic, we wouldn’t have an understanding on the universe and reality. Another characteristic that is quite important in science is that science is open to falsification. Scientists understand that they want to find the truth with different phenomenon. They also understand that they cannot find the absolute truth. Scientists always change their findings as new findings are being collected. Thirdly, it rejects faith as a method of evidence. Faith is based on ones’ belief on a specific subject matter. Science is not based on belief but on finding the truth. Scientists occasionally doubt their findings or evidence in order to find more concrete evidence. On the side of religion, it is primarily faith based. Most of the characteristics that science accept, religion denies. First off,
Religion is commonly defined as a group of beliefs concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions and rituals associated with such beliefs (Wikipedia, 2006). Most of the major religions have evolved over the centuries into what they are today. In many cultures and times, religion has been the basic foundation of life, permeating all aspects of human existence (Fisher, 2002). Religion is passed on from generation to generation. My religious beliefs were passed on from my relatives on my mother's side. My family has believed in the Catholic faith for many generations. Since I grew up in the Catholic faith I went to Catholic schools my entire childhood. My personal experiences and the Catholic faith made me into the person I am today. Without a religious upbringing I feel that there would have been something missing in my life.