Santa Claus — the ultimate dry run.

[cleanhippie]

http://parentingbeyondbelief.com/blog/?p=4982

IT’S HARD TO even consider the possibility that Santa isn’t real. Everyone seems to believe he is. As a kid, I heard his name in songs and stories and saw him in movies with very high production values. My mom and dad seemed to believe, batted down my doubts, told me he wanted me to be good and that he always knew if I wasn’t. And what wonderful gifts I received! Except when they were crappy, which I always figured was my fault somehow. All in all, despite the multiple incredible improbabilities involved in believing he was real, I believed – until the day I decided I cared enough about the truth to ask serious questions, at which point the whole façade fell to pieces. Fortunately the good things I had credited him with kept coming, but now I knew they came from the people around me, whom I could now properly thank.

Now go back and read that paragraph again, changing the ninth word from Santa to God.

--snip--

“Some people believe the sleigh is magic,” I said. “Does that sound right to you?” Initially, boy howdy, did it ever. He wanted to believe, and so was willing to swallow any explanation, no matter how implausible or how tentatively offered. “Some people say it isn’t literally a single night,” I once said, naughtily priming the pump for later inquiries. But little by little, the questions got tougher, and he started to answer that second part – Does that sound right to you? – a bit more agnostically.

I avoided both lying outright and setting myself up as a godlike authority, determined as I was to let him sort this one out himself. And when at last, at the age of nine, in the snowy parking lot of the Target store, to the sound of a Salvation Army bellringer, he asked me point blank if Santa was real – I demurred, just a bit, one last time.

http://parentingbeyondbelief.com/blog/?p=4982

---------------------------------


A must read! This is the way we are approaching this issue too.

Thoughts?

[eridani]

1. A Zen approach

First there is a Santa Claus
Then there is no Santa Claus
Then there is

[tavalon]

2. Our kid is mentally handicapped

He believes in Santa and I have no intention of destroying that. Besides, the morphogenic theory posits that if enough people believe in something, it exists.

[laconicsax]

3. "Besides, the morphogenic theory posits that if enough people believe in something, it exists."

Realty doesn't work that way--wishing something doesn't make it true.

[tavalon]

5. Are you sure?

[laconicsax]

7. You're joking, right?

Reality is not subject to what people believe about it.

-The Earth has never been at the center of the universe and has never been flat, despite the fact that those were once prevailing beliefs.
-There was never a global flood that wiped out all life on Earth save for those loaded onto a gigantic boat by a 600 year-old man even though millions of people believe that there was.
-Light-skinned people have never been inherently superior to dark-skinned people no matter how many people used to (and still do) believe it.
-President Obama is a natural-born citizen despite many people's sincerely held beliefs to the contrary.
-Cutting taxes for the wealthy doesn't stimulate the economy no matter how many idiots believe otherwise.

There's even a logical fallacy named after the idea that if enough people believe something, it is true. It's called argumentum ad populum.

[tavalon]

8. Only half kidding

The scientific part of me knows, but wouldn't it be nice?

[laconicsax]

10. It really wouldn't.

It wouldn't just be the 'fun' or 'nice' stuff that would be made real by wishing, but the horrible stuff wished into existence by others as well.

[cleanhippie]

13. Are you?

Come on, you cannot be serious. Really?

[cleanhippie]

4. You don't need to "destroy" anything.

Did you read the article? You would have seen that "destroying" the Santa myth is NOT what happens.


And just believing in something and having other believe it does not make it true. You know that, right?

[trotsky]

9. I don't think you really read the article, did you? n/t

[Goblinmonger]

6. A good read.

We always thought it was horrible to tell our children when they, through their own reasoning and thought process, had come to the correct conclusion that there was no Santa, Easter Bunny, god, etc. that they were wrong. Aren't you telling them that they can't think correctly.

[backscatter712]

11. My hypothesis, coming from reading the God Virus.

Mythological children's figures, like Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny are used to prime children's minds to make them ready receptacles for the God virus. It plants the idea in their heads that it's OK and encouraged to believe in fantastical figures with absolutely zero evidence, and rewards them for doing so with toys and games and candy and fun!

Eventually, the kids learn that the mythological figures aren't real, but by that time, the damage has been done, the mind has been primed for unquestioning belief, and if they question Jesus the same way they question Santa Claus, the God virus's defense mechanisms kick in, and out come the punishments, the threats of Hellfire, the ostracism, etc. etc. etc.

That's my hypothesis. Am I close to the truth on this?

[cleanhippie]

14. That certainly seem plausible.

And Dale McGowan, the author of Parenting Beyond Belief and this article, thinks that this approach to the Santa issue, allowing the children to use inquiry, rational and reasonable thought processes, is the best inoculation to the "god virus". And I tend to agree with that.

[struggle4progress]

12. Most kids probably figure out Santa Claus by themselves somewhere around age 8

[cleanhippie]

15. Some sooner, some later, but it is the "how they find out" that is most important.

[struggle4progress]

16. I generally suspect children are a bit more intellectually agile than adults give them credit for

[cleanhippie]

17. They most certainly are...

Its just too bad that most of them have that ability stifled by religious indoctrination.