The Sun, The Importance of Reason, and Santa - Reader comments at The New York Sun

Submitted by Rev Keith Wright, Dec 22, 2007 04:45

No, Virginia...there is no Santa.

Virginia, this is a time of year when many in the world celebrate the day the Christian church took the holiday, "Sol Invictus" and created the Christmas holiday, Christmas. The origin of this holiday, thusly, had nothing to do with the birth of Christ.

Virginia, as the masthead of the sun states, "The journal for people of reason." Lieing is wrong, Virginia. To tell a child that Santa is a make-believe figure based on a real person is one thing...insisting to children that Santa IS real, is another...and very wrong.

Use your reason, Virginia...as impossible as the fables of Genesis, the New Testament, and the Easter Bunny are, so is the mythical Santa.

The Santa myth teaches it is ok to lie sometimes...like saying that Jesus existed, or God talks to people, or touching the TV screen will cure your inoperable cancer.

A religion which requires its followers to lie to themselves to accept fantastic claims and then asks those same followers to lie to their children is inherantly evil.

Virginia, if you want to have fun with a pretend Santa, then have fun...but Santa isn't real, and it is wrong to state otherwise.

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Other reader comments on this article

Comment

Date

This editorial was a joy to me as a child and it still is!!!! [MORE]

Tom Huber

Dec 24, 2011 12:58

My parents told me that Santa Claus brought us dream as well as some gifts, when I was a little... [MORE]

Hisao

Dec 24, 2011 09:25

Children, like all human beings, should be treated with respect. When we consider their ignorance adorable, we are using them... [MORE]

George Jochnowitz

Dec 22, 2011 17:27

Many people think that maybe because of the tremendous duty of passing presents out in a short span of time... [MORE]

Walt Landers

Oct 27, 2011 10:09

Virginia no one can see the air we breath,and no one can say for sure if there is a Santa. My... [MORE]

Roger De Freitas

Dec 20, 2010 09:24

We live in an upside-down world where the reidculous is proposed as right and authentic and the common sensical is... [MORE]

Josh Reynolds

Dec 20, 2010 07:22

The problem today is people have lost there way they lost the the imagenation i still belive in santa as... [MORE]

Peter

Dec 7, 2010 07:03

still the best editorial written..and of course if it is in the sun its true, merry xmas [MORE]

robert

Dec 25, 2007 16:48

I was hoping to see this article here today. It's one of my all-time favourite pieces of writing. The Sun... [MORE]

Perilous

Dec 24, 2007 20:21

Virginia O'Hanlon, aged 8 when she penned her concerned enquiry to the all-knowing New York Sun, was a student in... [MORE]

Katya

Dec 23, 2007 05:41

To: The Editor I heard about this when I was a child, but should be pleased to learn anything about the... [MORE]

Nancy Joyce Jancourtz

Dec 22, 2007 08:24

Ms. Jancourtz, The Kitsap Sun (WA state) has just published an article about Virginia's letter and its response. According to the... [MORE]

Marcia

Dec 23, 2007 18:41

No, Virginia...there is no Santa. Virginia, this is a time of year when many in the world celebrate the day the...

Rev Keith Wright

Dec 22, 2007 04:45

You seem to misunderstand the point. The editors of the Sun had a problem. In one sense, a phyiscal sense,... [MORE]

Matt

Dec 22, 2011 17:33

The task that faces every child is learning about the world—a job that can never be completed. The task that... [MORE]

George Jochnowitz

Dec 21, 2007 23:31

This is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written about the spirit of Christmas. ....George Townsend Linden, NJ [MORE]

George Townsend

Dec 21, 2007 13:07

Needed more than ever today when the politically correct, crowd devoid of any passion or interest except to insyre the... [MORE]

Stephen Struk

Dec 21, 2007 11:41

Santa Claus represents love and generosity. Let this be, for always. When children see Santa Claus that will remind them... [MORE]

paul

Dec 22, 2007 18:38

i think this christmas story ranks close to the top of the list of all christmas stories. it has been... [MORE]

richard rumph

Dec 21, 2007 10:33

This Editorial was read to me, as part of our traditional Christmas celebrations, all through my childhood and it is... [MORE]

Katherine

Dec 21, 2007 03:19

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