God, politics and Father Christmas.

When children in the UK are small they are usually told about Father Christmas by their parents. They believe the stories because, after all, their parents have spoken, so it must be true. Not only that but their teachers, other adults and other children all believe it too, so it MUST be true.

Not once do they question the logistics of this jolly old man. He travels the whole world in one night; he knows whether every child has been naughty or nice; he knows exactly what every child wants for Christmas. He visits every house by coming down the chimney, that one has been amended in recent years to his arriving via the front door with a special key if there is no chimney in the house. No child asks 'How does he do that?' or says 'That's not possible'. They accept it all, and all because of where the information has come from - the grown ups, their parents.

It's my belief that this is the way it is with politics and with God.

God is so woven into our society with the church teaching us that god is real and people have believed this since Adam was a boy (literally!) so it must be true. We cannot stand up and say he does not exist, his name is on our bank notes for heaven's sake! It was taught to me from being a small child, and I believed every one of the bible stories without question.

In the world of politics our government tells us what we should have, how we will have it and that preferably we should also be very grateful for it! Our government is a big body of intelligent people, aren't they? So they must be right.

With all of these things, god, politics and Father Christmas, it is only when we grow up and question the things that are placed  before us that we can begin to make our own decisions about what it true.

Many people do not question though. Many will carry on blindly following the path created by their predecessors. I'm talking about god and politics here. I know a few people who continue to vote for a certain party because their father used to vote for them, they must be the right choice. More continue to accept the teachings of the bible even when they are 'cherry picking' the parts they wish to believe, mainly because 'it's always been this way'.

Coming back to Father Christmas. As a child I eventually knew there was no such person (spoiler?!) but now as an adult if I'm asked the question I'd say that yes, I do believe in Father Christmas. I believe in the spirit of Christmas that he represents, the spirit of giving. The spirit of Christmas for me is all about spending time with family, giving each one a gift carefully chosen for each person, eating and talking together. Not both at the same time though, that would be messy. 

I don't believe in the religious side of Christmas as I'm atheist. I will peacefully sit while you follow the religious side of it, should you wish to, but I believe it's just a nice story.

My point in all this, is that when we mature, we should ALL be encouraged to question the beliefs taught to us as children. We need ask why this is the truth, and decide for ourselves.

Small example, kind of from the world of politics, well from the government anyway. Years ago when we needed to have electricity spread across the country, electricity pylons were erected. Hundreds of these enormous pylons linking the electricity wires across the whole of the UK. Nobody raised a hand and said 'We don't want those in our backyards!' Why? The government said we needed them, so we had 'em! Just think what would happen today if it were suggested we have huge pylons everywhere, there would be outcry! There is often a hell of a fuss when one wind turbine is erected. Nowadays we consider everything our parliament puts forward, and we are not afraid of making our voices heard.

In closing, this is not the 1940s/1950s when we were subdued and accepting. Question everything, and encourage young people to do the same.