Do we treat God like Santa Claus when we pray?
June 11th, 2012 by L. James Everett, III.
I’ve heard it said that we treat God like Santa Claus when we pray and we ask for things.
But what is the difference between Santa and God?
If you’re an atheist, you might think: Not much of a difference at all, pal: They’re both fake, human inventions to comfort us in times of naivety, ignorance, and fear.
But I believe atheism is incorrect. God does exist, whether we acknowledge that to ourselves, or not.
Us believers in God, we have our long drawn-up lists, and we ask God to give us the things that we want.
What kind of things? Well, you know, things that you want. Sometimes the sophisticated praying theist makes a distinction between needs and wants. The needs bucket is inflated beyond what any non-aristocratic and spoiled human living more than 100 years ago would think of as a need. But, nevertheless, we realize that clothes and food we need (although I myself could do without the clothes in some island circumstances), while having a nice home is a want.
But how nice of clothes do we need? Obviously, God would want you to wear True Religion skinny jeans, but beyond that? Do you really need the $25 Van Halen t-shirt?
How nice of food do we need? Sushi? Oranges? In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, written in the 1870′s about ante-bellum Missouri, apples were a rare and wonderful desert. Apples. Dude. Those better be some durn-good apples.
So, let’s alter our question: Is asking God for our wants, big and small, treating God like Santa Claus?
No, and here’s why.
God and Santa Claus are very, very different.
The famous existentialist Christian philosopher C. Stephen Evans makes this point brilliantly in his little book, Why Believe? Reason and Mystery as Pointers to God. If you don’t own the book, check it out at the bookstore, or buy it at the library. If you don’t have any bookstores, money, or libraries, ask God for it. Put them on your list of needs.
Evans, who teaches at Baylor University, says that Santa and God are about as different as can be.
Think about the concepts. The trick here is, you have to get the concept of God right. God is by definition the greatest conceivable being: Greater than which you or anyone else cannot conceive. Anything less is not God. How do I know that God is not the Geese? Um, because I can conceive of greater things than geese. Geese begin to exist, they can be shot and eaten for dinner, and although they can fly (which kicks butt, let’s face it), they neither created the world, nor sustain it in existence, nor do they give any of the little pieces of crap they crap out, about you. Why would they, they don’t know you. 
They don’t have the capacity to know you. They didn’t create you. They don’t sustain you in existence.
But, God does.
God did not begin. God will not end. Is God a person? Well, is it greater to be a person, or a non-person? Would you rather be you, or an unconscious, impersonal slab of granite? It’s greater to be a person than not, and since God is the Greatest Conceivable Being, therefore God must be personal. God is not some unconscious collection of molecules, like a slab of granite. Moreover, God knows stuff.
Is it greater to know every truth, or to only have partial knowledge of truth? It’s pretty clear its better to know more than less. Is it greater to have some power, or to have all power? God is the greater of these choices. God knows everything. God is all powerful. Is it greater to care about justice somewhat, or to the max? Is it greater to be somewhat loving, but not, like, all out to the max, or is it greater to be a boundless lover? Fitting God’s love and justice together, in the same being, is the cross of Christ. Take one of those two away, and you don’t understand the historical event of the crucifixion of Jesus.
Okay, so God is personal. So is Santa.
But, here is the catch. Santa did not create the world a finite time ago, nor does Santa sustain the world in existence. Santa didn’t take the penalty for your sins on the cross, out of love, and justice at the same time.
Now, this is the God we are dealing with. This God cares about progress. Your progress. His Creation’s progress. This is the God you are praying to. A God boundless with love, justice, mercy, at the same time. A God you need and want.
We are needing and wanting creatures, designed that way. God answers prayers partly by asking for your help with other people’s needs and wants. Pray away.
June 11th, 2012 at 8:30 pm
Nice…
Do you think this Santa complex is the result of a kind of sanctified narcissism or a baptized egocentrism?
June 16th, 2012 at 1:42 am
Thanks AT.
I’m not sure. Good question.
June 16th, 2012 at 1:44 am
Here is a nice little discussion on articulating the Trinity, something I did not do in this post. This is written by the head of Summit Oxford (at Oxford University) Centre for Christian Thought–he is a Christian who was 5th generation Mormon. Of course, Mormons don’t believe the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity.
http://www.kevinbywater.com/?p=396
June 29th, 2012 at 9:35 am
I’ve often thought that if the greatest possible being, the First Mover, was named Santa Clause, we’d be worshipping Santa. But since Santa lacks such attributes, it is unfair and unreasonable to compare them. It reveals an ignorance when skeptics compare them… but that so many of us theists get stumped by that question, it shows we aren’t standing on very solid ground ourselves in knowing who this God is!
I like how you’ve turned Santa on his head on this piece… not only as a comparison to God’s existence but as a comparison to God’s goodness. It is a good thing that, all fairy-tales aside, God is fully capable and generous of giving gifts all year round.
July 1st, 2012 at 6:16 pm
Indeed, Dale, all year round.
My reading C. Stephen Evans’ book–specifically that comparison he made between God and Santa Claus–was a pretty major leap forward for me, as I recall.
It took me awhile to think about what that meant. I’m still processing what it means to worship the God James chapter 1 talks about in the New Testament. The Father of Lights, giver of every good gift.
July 10th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
This is something God has been changing in my own heart the past few years in my personal prayer time. In the paradigm I grew up in, prayer is a list of health “needs” for anyone imaginable.
However, when we see Jesus and the early church pray (or even looking back at the Old Testament prayers) they are rich and alive. Not a list that goes a few pages for people that need healing. I was tired of treating God like “Santa” and I have begun to treat Him as a personal being…as *my* God.
July 20th, 2012 at 6:58 pm
Esther, good to hear!
July 11th, 2012 at 12:05 pm
I think God does care what we want. Want is a feeling. Asking God for them is merely telling him our feelings, and God is a personal being, like you said. So therefore he wants to know our feelings. Now, asking him for what we want does not necessarily mean we are going to get it. Kinda like Santa (I flashback to when I was seven and asked Santa for a puppy…alas, Christmas came and there was no puppy).
July 20th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
N,
Yes, God does care.
Sorry about not getting the puppy.