Wednesday November 26, 2008
Conflicting stories
Another year has almost finished. This coming Sunday, the Christian season of Advent starts again, the four weeks leading up to another Christmas. Already, tinsel and decorations festoon houses and stores.
Christmas was originally about the coming of a long-awaited Messiah. But I suspect that for many more people today, it\’s about the coming of Santa Claus.
Although we tend to think of Santa as having been around forever, he hasn\’t. There were hints of him in the Dutch St. Nicholas, slurred in dialect to “Sint \’klas,” who gave gifts to good children, but left lumps of coal for bad ones. He in turn may derive from a Turkish bishop, the original St. Nicholas, who travelled around his diocese scattering coins.
But the Santa Claus we know best got started with Clement Moore in 1823, in his poem “\’Twas the night before Christmas…”
Then Coca Cola borrowed the image of a “jolly old elf… with a belly that shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly…” and marketed it.
And presto, more legends attached themselves to Santa than toys in his sack. He has the world\’s only airborne sleigh. His lead reindeer has a glow-in-the-dark nose. Santa has elves who make toys. He lives in a house on the ice at the North Pole…
Out of sync
Which presents a problem. Because if Santa\’s house is on the ice, he\’s soon going to need life-jackets.
Orbiting satellites show 40 per cent more open water in the Arctic than scientists had expected. And the remaining sea ice is 40 per cent thinner than it was.
By 2050, scientists say, the North Pole will be open water. Already, it has patches of open water in summer.
Suddenly, two knowledge systems come into conflict.
On one side is the world of myth and legend, which claims that Santa lives at the North Pole.
On the other is the world of common knowledge, which offers empirical evidence of open water at the North Pole.
Will we amend our stories to match reality, I wonder? Will we tell our grandchildren that Santa lives on a ship, a kind of Noah\’s Ark filled with reindeer and elves?
Or will we continue to propound two conflicting stories, one of which becomes suspect?
What to believe To receive this column regularly via e-mail, send a request to jimt@quixotic.ca. E-mail subscribers also get excerpts from correspondence about these columns. Please forward a copy of this column to anyone who might be interested in subscribing.
If you want to order my books, you can call 1-800-663-2775 in Canada, 1-800-328-0200 in the U.S., or order them on-line at the Wood Lake Books website.
For a lighter look at ethics, faith, and life, I recommend Ralph Milton\’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it at the Wood Lake Books home page in Ralph Milton\’s Site, or by sending a note directly to ralphmilton@woodlake.com.
It\’s also worth pursuing Charlene Fairchild\’s United Online site. Another site worth visiting is David Keating\’s \”SeemslikeGod\” page.
When our son was 14, he told us he didn\’t think he could go through with Confirmation. “I can\’t state that I believe the stuff in the Bible, about God making the earth in seven days,” he explained, “when I know from school that it\’s been around for about 500 million years.”
Remember, this is a 14-year-old adolescent speaking, not me!
He was struggling with a conflict of two knowledge systems – one based on legend, the other on science.
This conflict has been growing for several centuries, as we\’ve learned more about ourselves, our world, and our solar system. It leads some people to reject religion, and others to reject science.
What we do with Santa will reflect what we do – or don\’t do – with other traditional understandings.
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Copyright © 2008 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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