Believing in God is the same as believing in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Clause, and the Flying Spaghetti

I do not attempt to emulate his level of research and citation and I will mostly be debating based on what I know. In other words, I am too lazy to provide any links. In any case, a simple Google search by anyone interested will no doubt provide some elucidation. 1) My opponent starts off by saying that the tooth fairy, santa claus and the flying spaghetti monster (Henceforth referred to simply as CREATURES) are not consistent with aseity whereas God does. To me, it does not at all matter what exactly your definition of God is or what characteristics he has. As a Christian, you may believe your god to be all-powerful and all-merciful. People of a different religion may believe their god to be harsh in punishment and will punish you at a magnitude equal to that of your sins. By the way, some Christians believe that Jesus was in fact the son of God, so in this case God did not just exist by himself, he was produced from another entity. Maybe you will now be saying "Oh, but my definition of God is so and so based on Catholic teaching. " You continue to say that God is NOT THE SAME as the CREATURES. Yeah, no kidding. Of course, we are not saying that an entity which is the creator is the same as mystical CREATURES which we do not attribute to God-like characteristics. We need to go back to the motion. BELIEVING in God is the same as believing in CREATURES. The characteristics we attribute to the different things we believe in will never be the same. The same way that a microwave does not function the same way a toaster does. When a kid believes that Santa Claus exists, he doesnt see him, and he relies only on what his parents tell him. Coupled with a simplistic reasoning ability, he decides based on what he does know about the world that santa claus does in fact exist. This is not so different from an adult who believes in god. He doesnt see God. He relies on some religious texts that are supposedly 'true' because mainly other people and religious leaders tells him it's true. Based on all these, he decides God is true. Is god the same as santa claus? Of course NOT. No one is saying he is. But the BELIEF that a kid has for santa claus and the belief that an adult has for the existence of an entity that cannot be seen is to me, very much similar. 2) My opponent then talks about the supposed accuracy of the biblical works. "No one seriously disputes that we have accurate copies of the works of these writers". Well, I seriously dispute them and the bible itself. The fact that the manuscripts that you have to depend on were so far apart from the author's lifetime should have rang some alarm bells. Even when you talk about Jesus, just this year the BBC News released an article about how our imagery of Jesus as this white guy with flowing hair is so different from what he most probably would have looked like. We have to remind ourselves that the bible is a collection of works that have been written and rewritten by so many authors. This fact is not even a secret. However, I will still have to respect you on your religious views. I DO NOT however see any correlation with the religion you have chosen to believe with you making a serious argument that the believing in god is not the same as believing in creatures. YES, no one becomes a martyr defending santa claus. But if you are dying for some idealogy that not everyone believes in, and that only you believe in, then just because you are a martyr it doesnt mean what you are believing in is better than what kids believe in. I feel that there seems to be a supposed superiority just because someone believes in a higher power. At the end of the day, we all choose what we want to believe in. If I believe in creatures and it makes me happy and hopeful about life and you believe in a god or gods and you feel happy about life, then thats great :) We can all be happy. Your god is not the same as my creatures. But the belief in them fulfils the same need for us to be happy and to carry on living. And that is why BELIEVING in god is the same as believing in creatures.