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An Op-Ed by Dr. David Kyle Johnson
It was almost the best, until it was the worst.
Given the popularity of my writings on Santa—particularly “The Santa Claus Lie”—almost everyone I knew told me I had to watch the Netflix film, I Still Believe in Santa. It’s a Hallmark-type romantic comedy where the (adult) male protagonist still believes in Santa Claus. “Ok,” I told myself, “I’ll give it a try.” I figured it was going to be one of those It’s so bad, it’s good films. It was nothing of the sort. In fact, it was almost my favorite Christmas movie of all time … until it wasn’t.
It begins with Lisa, a writer who hates Christmas. She falls in love with Tom, who loves Christmas. It takes some doing, but he convinces her that Christmas is not so bad. But then the ball drops; Tom reveals that he, a grown adult, still literally believes that Santa Claus is real. This is odd given that he is a lawyer who—earlier in the film—says he demands logic for the things he believes. However, he says that logic is on his side with this whole Santa thing. According to Tom, it is illogical to think that two billion people all agree to “conspire” and lie about the existence of the same non-existent person; it’s more logical to think that Santa actually exists.
Of course, this argument doesn’t actually work. Not only is the history of how the Santa Claus lie became embedded in society well understood, but Tom knows full well that he is the lone adult who believes in Santa. He knows that, regardless of whether Santa is real or not, every other adult is telling their kids something they think isn’t true. The story they tell is not based on their belief in an actual Santa; hence, Santa’s existence has nothing to do with why the story is so widespread. But still, this argument sparked my interest because religions argue this exact thing. They involve billions of people, all telling the same story—but since at best only one religion is true, most of them involve billions of people “conspiring” to tell the same story which isn’t actually true. This thing that Tom says is so “illogical” that it couldn’t actually happen, actually happens all the time.
I became really intrigued when the movie made the comparison to religion overt. Tom abandons the need for logic and starts calling his belief an act of faith—a religious concept that means, by definition, believing something without evidence (or in spite of evidence to the contrary). Then, in a discussion with Lisa, Tom’s Muslim friend, Assan, says that he chooses not to judge Tom for believing in Santa Claus because that just means Tom has different beliefs than him. Lisa responds with, “I hear what you’re saying, Assan, but Santa isn’t religion,” and then Assan drops this bombshell:
"The only difference between religion and Santa is that as we get older, religious grown-ups tell us that our faith was right all along. But they don’t have proof either. They just tell us that the stories we believe are true. But with Santa, the grown-ups are there to tell you that the stories are not true. And Tom just chose not to believe the grown-ups."
“Holy Christ(mas),” I said to myself. “The movie is equating religious belief with belief in Santa! It’s saying both are equally baseless and irrational.” I’ve argued for this in print, specifically in the journal Think, where I and Ruth Tallman show how all of the same (irrational) arguments that people give for their belief in God could also be used to defend a belief in Santa Claus. I was thrilled that something like our argument had finally made it to the big screen, even if it was in a Hallmark movie knockoff.
Obviously, what Assan is suggesting to Lisa is, “If you wouldn’t criticize me for my religious belief, then you shouldn’t criticize Tom for his Santa belief.” But it also follows that if you would criticize a grown adult like Tom for believing in Santa—concluding that an adult believer in Santa was dumb, deluded, or even insane— then you should also conclude the same things about those who embrace religious belief. If faith in Santa Claus and faith in God are equally ridiculous, as the movie suggests, what is sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander. Now I understood why everyone was telling me to watch this movie!
But then, at the end of the film, it crashed and my love for the film burned away. Lisa says to Tom that it’s important to believe in things “bigger than ourselves—that we can’t prove,” and in the article on Christmas she has been assigned to write, she concludes that “we should never doubt the power of taking our little leaps of faith. Faith may be the last great universal concept holding the whole world together … And besides, a little magic never hurt anybody.”
After my mind went to all the real-world examples where belief in magic does, in fact, hurt people—for example, faith in magical medical cures can be very deadly—my heart sank. Faith is holding the world together? No, it isn’t. Setting aside the plethora of deadly conflicts around the world fueled by differences in religious faith, and the centuries of such conflicts that preceded them, just think of what faith—which again, is simply belief without or despite evidence to the contrary—is doing to democracies around the globe.
Your candidate of choice didn’t win the election? Just believe against all evidence (i.e., have faith) that the election was rigged. Can’t find a legitimate way to criticize the policies of your political opponents? Just believe on good faith that they are Satan-worshiping pedophiles!
It’s even worse when we think about what faith is doing to our planet. Don’t like what we would have to do about climate change? Just have faith that God wouldn’t let his creation die … or that it’s actually God’s plan in preparation for the rapture. I could go on and on. Faith is not holding the world together. It is a major cause of many global problems.
Contrary to the suggestions of I Still Believe in Santa, we need to stop idolizing and idealizing childlike faith. Belief without (or in spite of) evidence is not praiseworthy. It is not noble. It is not virtuous. It is dangerous, dumb, and deadly in many areas of life. What the world needs now is the exact opposite of the moral lesson of I Still Believe in Santa. What we need now is to grow up as a species … and base our beliefs on actual data, evidence, and sound logic. Because belief in fairy tales won’t solve anything.
