I was always suspicious of the Easter Bunny.
Why the influx of jelly beans at the grocery store if the Bunny was supposedly the source?
Why the zipper down the back of the Bunny at the mall?
And since the holiday was all about eggs, why the Bunny and not a Chicken?
But I had no alternative explanation for the annual appearance of my easter basket.
Then one afternoon…
…Mom carried a sack full of easter grass and chocolate eggs into the house.
And my Easter paradigm changed.
That’s the beauty of belief!
It can change.
You can toss away ideas the moment you realize they’re bad.
It’s liberating.
And much easier than trying to justify a crazy ideology…
Like:
“There’s a rabbit that brings eggs and chocolate to my house.”
“Individuals decide meaning for themselves.”
“All religions are the same.”
“Reason replaces faith.”
“We don’t need God to be good
“The universe came from nothing.”
“Science answers every question.”
When you see the worthlessness of these ideas…
…throw them out!
Just get rid of them.
There’s no shame in flinging a bad idea in the dumpster.
Ideas aren’t people.
Ideas don’t feel abandoned or unloved.
Bye-bye Bunny!
I’ll just get my jelly beans at the store.
7 Responses
When you come to this understanding, it is so liberating. I guess that’s why they say it’s the truth that sets you free.
Whenever I asked about Santa or the Easter Bunny (or the Tooth Fairy), my dad liked to “answer” with another question: “Well, do YOU think they’re real?”
Neither of my parents ever lied to me. Instead they always encouraged me to do my own investigating…
I went through all the same steps as you. (Wondering why Santa looked different at every Mall. Wondering why we bought presents for Grandma and Gramdpa instead of letting Santa take care of them, too. And–one night–I caught the “tooth fairy” in HIS whitey-tighteys. lol.)
But I finally decided the biggest hint was Mom and Dad’s failure to answer direct questions about these characters. I reasoned with my little brother, “If Santa existed, then they would just say YES, he’s real….but they won’t!”
I’m doing the same things with my kids now: just asking questions to see if/when they can put it together themselves. And, God willing, they won’t be deathly afraid of being wrong by the time they’re grown-ups. 🙂
Thanks for putting THAT image into my head! Hahahaha!
You need god to be good? Really?
You can’t determine right from wrong by yourself?
Interesting…
You can’t determine right and wrong by yourself either, JZ.
Your last philosophical pummeling on this subject took place on another blog. Are you seriously going to put your battered, humanist ideology back in the ring?
Remember how it ended with you confessing that evil itself is something that only exists as a religious construct?
Remember when I asked how a guy who possesses NO RELIGION can write an entire book about God being evil?
Remember that you then put on your ‘theology hat’, as if belief is a type of headgear that you just put on whenever you need it.
Remember how I pointed out that you’re stealing your humanity from religion (specifically, Christianity)?
Don’t you remember any of this?
“Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.”
Or you could throw out those bad arguments and get hold of something that actually works!
Isn’t there a line about being a child and believing childish things? . . Grow up John.
There is indeed, Carmen!
You’re suggesting I should follow what the Bible says?
(Kaboom! Even a child would have seen that reply coming…)