‘Dad, Is Santa Real?’

We know the answer, but our kids likely don’t. I have a two-year-old and a four year-old, so they certainly do not. They are smart, and like any kids, they ask tons of questions. I took a personal oath early to tell them the truth. That’s why this issue has been so difficult for me.

Santa doesn’t add up. Our narrative gives us more questions than answers. Kids are supposed to simply accept this story, with very little evidence. Except perhaps the most important of all: presents. So we take these young people who are most vulnerable and moldable, and indoctrinate them in a lie. Why?

I want my kids to think. I want them to ask questions. And I want to be able to tell them the truth.

But they could tell their friends. Yes, they could. It sounds terrible, but is it? Is it bad that your child would learn that a fairy tale was a fairy tale from my child? I think the faster we are to sort out the part where people’s feelings matter more than the truth, we get to the bottom, and our kids begin to grow.

I have no doubt that my four year-old would play along knowing Santa is ‘pretend.’ They imagine all the time. Is it so ludicrous to think that they could deal with this simple truth?

The silver lining is the belief in something you cannot see. In the Christian worldview, this is what we call faith. But I simply do not what my kids to have faith in something that they have no reason to believe.

What if my kid tells your kid Jesus exists? It’s something that she and I believe is true, but you don’t necessarily believe. The point here is to have a discussion. To figure out which is more justified, belief or non-belief. If we can’t discuss what we believe and why we believe it, what are we doing?

I’ll hold off telling her for now. But I don’t know how long I’ll last.

Knowledge, Belief, and Fantasy

What is knowledge? It’s an awareness that something your head corresponds to reality. Of course, there may be justification needed to verify that what’s in your head does actually correspond with reality. Otherwise there is no way of verifying that the thing corresponds with reality. And if you don’t know that it corresponds with reality, it’s not knowledge.

But if your thought corresponds with reality, justified or not, it is true. Wait. If you believe that bigfoot exists [assuming he does] without reason to believe so, is it knowledge? It can’t be. There is no reason to think that the proposition, “Bigfoot exists” is true. You just believe that bigfoot exists.

The question becomes How do you know it’s true? Because it can only be knowledge if it’s true. The only way to know it’s true is justification. So the only way to verify that your belief that bigfoot exists is true is to have reason to believe that bigfoot exists in reality. Otherwise, it is not knowledge. It’s fantasy.