Telling your children the truth about Santa and God; …couch it in terms of probabilities

Technically, you can’t ‘prove’ Santa and God don’t exist, so you’d have to couch it in terms of probabilities. Also, the question is existential. Are God and Santa ever meant to be wholly ‘existing’ entities? As myths, it can be argued that the idea of them is more real and important than their physical reality.

War and Peace is a wholly fictional book, but does that mean the characters’ struggles, hopes and fears are meaningless and the story worthless? Of course not! War and Peace gives insight into the human condition. In a similar way, God and Santa perform as an outlet for people’s emotional needs. Often they also provide an outlet for less attractive traits, but heck, people find all sorts of ways to be nutcases – in a purely atheist world, I’ve no doubt people would find ways to harm each other too.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t tell your kids that God and Santa don’t exist. I’m just saying that the issue is complex, and it needs to be presented in its complexity to a mind that can appreciate its complexity.

For myself, I explained to my daughter at about age 4 that God probably doesn’t exist. As for Santa, of course he exists. I mean, it’s not like the Post Office or UPS could get all those presents delivered all in one night, and on a public holiday, now is it?