Comparing Jesus Christ to Santa Claus

Vegas , CoolJGS☺

When people propagate something as truth that is not true, there are two possibilities: They are liars, or fools.
When you know that something is not true and tell it anyway as if it were true, you are a liar.
When you don't know if something is true but believe it and tell it as if it were true, you are a fool.

The liar knows the facts don't match the narrative; the fool doesn't bother to check if the facts match the narrative. Whether it's laziness or willful ignorance doesn't matter.

However, not all religious preachers are liars or fools. If they admit that they don't know for sure if God exists, just believe it, and make their services for like-minded people; without trying to convince others that the deity of their choice exists, then they make their service for likeminded people, who likewise accept that there's no proof for said deity, and don't try to convince others. And in my opinion there's nothing wrong with it.

But this is not what parents who drill their children into believing in Santa do. They want to manipulate their children's behaviour. "If you are not nice, Santa won't bring you any presents".
And that's also what some fundie preachers do. "If you don't repent, you are going to hell". These types of people are liars.

In my opinion people who try to say it's not the same, because you can't prove that God exist but can prove that Santa does not exist (their words, not mine), are to be taken as seriously as conspiracy theorists.
In fact, maybe belief in conspiracy theories might be a better analogy to belief in God and wanting to believe it's true and trying to convince others, than belief to Santa.

In my opinion, true believers in conspiracy theories are fools. They really believe their nonsense.
People who tell their children that Santa exists are liars. They know that the Santa they tell their children about does not exist.

Religious preachers who try to convert others can be both. Since I'm not a mind reader I can't know what their motivation is. I just know that I can take their claims as seriously as claims about Santa or whatever conspiracy theory you want to believe.