God and Santa Claus

[Scott]

Is anyone familiar with Jerry Jenkins' (of Left Behind fame) book, Twas the Night Before? Evidently it symbolic of belief in God (according to Sol Stein, one of Jenkins' mentors).

The story is about an adult woman who believes in Santa Claus and her fiance who does not. She decides that she cannot go through with the marriage since he does not believe in Santa Claus. He goes to Europe to investigate the truth of Sannta Claus and his plane crashes. He has a dream about Santa and elves helping him out. He wakes up in a Swiss hospital and neither he nor anybody knows how he got there. He becomes a believer. In the interim the woman has lost her belief in Santa Claus and he returns to restore her belief and they do marry (sorry to spoil the ending!).

Evidently, this is intended to be symbolic of why it is ok to believe in God when there is no proof. Reminds me of the LB stories in which statements would be made about "finally there is proof for God" b/c of the fulfilment of prophecies. In other words, there was no proof prior to these overwhelming prophecies.

What do you guys think about the Santa Claus metaphor? It strikes me as ridiculous and harmful to any legitimate apologetic.

[Edited on 5-25-2006 by Scott]

 

[BobVigneault]

I'm witchu Scott. That 'apologetic' is just industrial strength goofy.

 

[Scott]

Yeah, an unbeliever can say, "See, belief in God is on the same level as believing in Santa Claus."

 

[Puritanhead]

Humor from the Satirist P.J. O'Rourke

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Sounds like a great tear jerker, kind of a Sleepless in Seattle meets The Polar Express. It's belief in belief that is important after all.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Originally posted by SemperFideles
Sounds like a great tear jerker, kind of a Sleepless in Seattle meets The Polar Express. It's belief in belief that is important after all.

haha that's great.