My Journey Into Skepticism - The Easter Bunny

Back in 1987, I was in the first grade. I remember one morning my father had driven me to school.

We were sitting in the car before the morning bell rung and, I’m not sure how the conversation started, but we talked about the Easter Bunny. I can’t remember now if this was near Easter or not, but the timing doesn’t matter so much now.  (I was wearing a coat, so the weather fits as being close to Easter.)

That morning before school, I was talking to my dad about doubts I had about the Easter Bunny. He explained to me that the Easter Bunny was more of the spirit of Easter and not a real person.

So I asked about the candy that was left out during the night, and my dad explained how it was him and mom who put the candy out, but the spirit of the Easter Bunny helped.

In my mind I had this image of my parents putting eggs on the couch and then some candy would magically float and be put in places. This was my idea of how the spirit of the Easter bunny worked.

In one 10 minute conversation, my idea of a magic bunny hiding candy in my house was replaced with the idea that my parents hid the candy, but an invisible spirit helped them in some way.

Eventually the bell rang and I ran off to school. I remember my father warning me not to tell the other kids what I had learned and spoil Easter for them, but I was a 6 year old, so of course I told my friends.

I remember the first person I told. His name was James and we were hanging up our coats in the coat room and I asked him “Did you hear that the Easter Bunny isn’t real?” and he replied “Yeah I know and the Tooth Fairy is fake too.”

I believe this was the moment I started my path towards skepticism.

Even though I did tell some of my friends, my father’s warning about not spoiling Easter stuck with me too.

It made me think I had some secret knowledge and that not everyone was able to handle this knowledge.  I was somehow smart enough to know this, while many of my friends where in the dark and kept believing in something I knew was fake.

I don’t think my father ever thought this at the time, but it was this reasoning that lead me to question God and the Bible many years later.