{"id":1638,"date":"2017-09-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/christianity-is-a-fairy-tale-2\/"},"modified":"2022-06-22T14:22:50","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T18:22:50","slug":"christianity-is-a-fairy-tale","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/christianity-is-a-fairy-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"Christianity Is a Fairy Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"

The great psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) called Christianity a \u201cfairy tale.\u201d The phrase derived in the 1700s from the French conte de f\u00e9es (\u201c story about fairies\u201d) and has now become shorthand for a story that is both false and silly. We hear remarks such as \u201cI don\u2019t believe in the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, the Easter bunny or Jesus.\u201d Such a remark about religion is parallel to an equally childish statement about science, such as \u201cI don\u2019t believe in intergalactic crab monsters or molecular biology.\u201d Christianity is based on historical evidence that is open to evaluation.<\/p>\n

For me, Christianity is the opposite of childish. As a child I learned that God didn\u2019t exist before I learned that Santa Claus didn\u2019t exist. My parents told me at an early age that only stupid people believed in God, and I accepted that until I examined the evidence. Again, we should distinguish point of view from bias: point of view develops according to evidence; bias refuses to adjust to evidence. Whatever view we hold must always be revised in accordance with the evidence. Antitheists imagine that Christians believe in a big daddy or mommy who will be nice to them when they are good and punish them when they are naughty. Such people ignore the central event of Christianity\u2014the life and death of God\u2019s own son\u2014and the multitudes of Christians who have painfully died for their faith. They also ignore the innumerable brilliant scientists, philosophers, writers and others who have believed and now believe in Christ. It\u2019s true that some people are childish in their belief in Christianity, but others are childish in their belief in atheism.<\/p>\n

Freud\u2019s followers preferred the term \u201cfolk tale\u201d to Freud\u2019s \u201cfairy tale.\u201d Is Christianity a collection of folk tales? Some have claimed that the New Testament accounts are written versions of tales that gradually arose about Jesus before and after his death. The difference between the New Testament and folk tales is that the narratives about Jesus focus on a real person and were composed shortly after his death on the basis of eyewitness evidence. Folk tales are about fictional beings without known origins. Whatever the New Testament narratives are, they are certainly not folk tales. On the other hand, a number of fictional accounts about Jesus and his followers popped up in at least the second century and continue to proliferate today. Most make no pretense at being true and are accepted as fiction, like novels about other historical characters. Some claim to present the \u201creal, secret truth.\u201d The Christian community has always discerned between the fictional and the historical and between what is open and what is secret. Christianity has no room for secrets and is neither fairy tale nor folk tale.<\/p>\n

This post is an excerpt from the book<\/em>\u00a0Exposing Myths About Christianity\u00a0by Jeffrey Burton Russell (IVP Books, 2012). It is used with permission. You can purchase this resource in its entirety\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The great psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) called Christianity a \u201cfairy tale.\u201d The phrase derived in the …<\/p>\n

Christianity Is a Fairy Tale<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2555,"template":"","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"channels":[],"topics":[9,13],"languages":[],"class_list":["post-1638","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-article","topics-apologetics","topics-bible"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChristianity Is a Fairy Tale - 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