28 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Using Santa Claus as a Teachable Moment
But as our son Connor began to exhibit the incipient inklings of Kringledoubt, it occurred to me that something powerful was going on. I began to see the Santa paradigm as an unmissable opportunity—the ultimate dry run for a developing inquiring mind.
My boy was 8 years old when he started in with the classic interrogation: How does Santa get to all those houses in one night? How does he get in when we don’t have a chimney and all the windows are locked and the alarm system is on? Why does h... 1 
notes
notesTell the child the fantastic story about Santa Claus, but answer their skeptical questions truthfully.
28 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Santa Clause and God
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 improbabilit... 1 notes
notesOne is a myth meant to expire, the other is a myth meant to last a lifetime.
28 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
How Atheist Parents Let Their Children Enjoy Santa Claus
When Sabrina was little, she had a vivid imagination, like most children. (She still does!) We all had a lot of fun pretending, playing games with imaginary creatures and friends. That is a healthy part of learning and growing. Rather than tell Sabrina that the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus were lies, we told her that we were pretending they were real, just like characters in a book or cartoon. She never had to go through the process of unlearning Santa or the Easter Bunny. We figured that this... 1 notes
notesTell the child we are "pretending" there is a Santa Claus and Easter Bunny, let them in on joke so there is nothing to unbelieve.
05 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Santa Claus Can't Live at the North Pole
Here's a riddle for the kids. A man leaves his house for a walk. He walks a mile due south, a mile due east, and a mile due north, and finds he is back where he started. What is the man's name?
Yes, Virginia, his name is Santa Claus. And his house is at the North Pole.
But don't go looking for him there, Virginia. Here's the cold fact: Santa Claus doesn't live at the North Pole.
I knew from a young age that there was something fishy about Santa's address. At the age of five or six I discov...Folksonomies: superstition
Folksonomies: superstition
1 The ice is drifting an so is the pole.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Disproving Santa Claus with a Back of the Napkin Calculation
There is another approach to the extraterrestrial hypothesis of UFO origins.
This assessment depends on a large number of factors about which we know little,
and a few about which we know literally nothing. I want to make some crude
numerical estimate of the probability that we are frequently visited by
extraterrestrial beings.
Now, there is a range of hypotheses that can be examined in such a way. Let
me give a simple example: Consider the Santa Claus hypothesis, which maintains
that, in a ...
1 At one house a second, it would take Santa three years to visit all the houses in America alone.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Letters to the Editor About the Pioneer 10 Plaque and Con...
What sexuality there is in the message also drew epistolary fire. The Los
Angeles Times published a letter from an irate reader that went:
I must say I was shocked by the blatant display of both male and female sex
organs on the front page of the Times. Surely this type of sexual exploitation
is below the standards our community has come to expect from the Times.
Isn't it enough that we must tolerate the bombardment of pornography
through the media of film and smut magazines? Isn't it bad en... 1 notes
notesOne letter complained about sending pornography into space, a follow up letter made fun of the ignorance. Carl Sagan laments the failure of the plaque designers to make the two figures ethnically ambiguous.
