Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jko@hila.hut.fi (Jukka Korpela) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Taking God Seriously Message-ID: Date: 13 Nov 89 17:32:34 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland Lines: 12 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article dtate@unix.cis.pitt.edu (David M Tate) writes: >I personally will be quite content to let my children (if ever I have any) >believe in the existence of Aslan, Gandalf, Ransom, The People (Praised be >the Power and the Presence and the Name!), and a host of other valuable >*fictional* role-models and allegories. I suppose children do not believe in the existence of Aslan & others unless their parents and teachers present them as existent beings. But Santa Claus is very often described to children as a real thing, as real as God. The point is that when they find out that their parents and teachers lied about Santa Claus they tend to think that God and Jesus are a similar case.