Are you a person of faith?

Discussion in 'Art & Culture' started by Seattle, Dec 25, 2016.

  1. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    Are you a person of faith? In Santa Claus I mean? This story line has been around for a long time and that's unlikely to be the case if there wasn't something to it. He has never been seen but there is plenty of evidence on Dec. 25th each year that he does exist.

    The "going down the chimney" thing seems impractical in many cases but he works in mysterious ways and it's not ours to judge. I have to say on this issue I'm more of an agnostic. I'm just not quite sure but I do feel there is something there.

    It's not easy to take ordinary people, for most of the year, and get them to wear ugly sweaters and eat fruitcake and yet it seems to be fairly prevalent in this "season". There is a certain "power" there. You might call it a spirit even.

    Researchers are learning more about a type of nose infection that occurs in some reindeer that could explain Rudolf and his red nose. I don't know, there just seems to be something there. What do you think?
     
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  3. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    disembody the image and you have a spirit. The spirit of christmas.
     
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  5. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    How can you disembody an image?
     
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  7. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    If one considers the image as a constraining anchor, should disavowing it not be easier?
     
  8. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    For me it's easy to "disavow" something that doesn't have evidence for its existence. You still can't disembody something that doesn't have a body.
     
  9. timojin Valued Senior Member

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    Interesting in the Anglo world people bring into Christmas holiday santa , noel , and other . In the Latin America is more mentioning about Nino Jesus. ( babe Jesus ) Seams like the Anglo are more pagan oriented.
     
  10. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    pagan fersure
    In the northern climes the solstice was an important time for joy.
     
  11. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    Pagan is the way, the truth, go Pagan!
     
  12. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Yes. I believe it was the Roman Saturnalia that was co-opted by Christianity to celebrate Christ's birth, presumably some time around or shortly after the Emperor Constantine, who was the first Christian Roman Emperor.
     
  13. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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  14. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    Every adult in the world would see the extra gifts under the tree and know about Santa.
     
  15. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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  16. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    If you can send mail to Santa, he must be real. Or do you think the Post Office is part of some vast conspiracy?
     
  17. Stoniphi obscurely fossiliferous Valued Senior Member

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  18. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    Yes but organisation so slow to update in danger of closing.

    Currently I am thinking they survive on the auxiliary stuff they sell.

    Got the kids that do buy stamps and send real letters that opportunity for the post office to profit from seems to be srinking

    The major shopping centres have Santa on his seat with a letter box close by no stamp needed.

    Humpty Dumpty sad he not get letters.

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  19. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    It would be completely impractical for the U.S. Postal Service to actually process mail to Santa Claus. The most obvious reason is that no one has an address for Santa Claus. Yes, we all know that he lives at the North Pole, but it's virtually impossible to deliver mail to that address. People have traveled there by land only a few times in all of history--so there's no way any country's postal service could establish a standard route. Not to mention, as far as I can tell, the North Pole is not within the borders of any nation, so nobody would accept the responsibility to do so.

    Apparently it is in the Arctic Sea, which explains why no country has jurisdiction over it... and also explains why we can't build a "Santa's Office" there. One of the parties that successfully reached it did so in a submarine. I think it's also been reached by parachute, but I wouldn't want to be the guy who then has to find his way back home overland!

    That said, it's not practical even to establish an address for letters to Santa Claus from people in the USA. He gets millions of letters every year, and processing that amount of mail requires a large organization. The Postal Service is not exactly opulent, so some philanthropist would have to donate quite a lot of money to make it happen. And then, of course, what would he do with the letters? Hire thousands of scribes to write back? Or to identify the parents or guardians of the children who wrote, and send the letters to them?

    Some cities establish a "Santa Claus" address where all the letters from children in that city go... and that's about as far as the idea goes in the USA. The usual reason that children write to Santa is to let him know what specific presents they want him to bring. This begs the question of establishing a clerical office that will notify the parents, and then further begs the question of whether the parents can afford to buy those presents, or if they think the particular presents are even appropriate.

    As to whether Santa is real, I can do no better than to quote the editorial in the New York Sun on Sept. 21, 1897, which was a response to a letter written to the editor by a little girl named Virginia, in which she explains, "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus." The editor replied:

    Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except that they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, whether they are men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

    Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary the world would be if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

    Not believe in Santa Claus? You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

    You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real?

    Ah, Virginia. In all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

    No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. ​
     

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