Oscar_Cunningham comments on The Santa deception: how did it affect you? - Less Wrong

21 Post author: Desrtopa 20 December 2010 10:27PM

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Comment author: Oscar_Cunningham 19 December 2010 07:26:18PM *  10 points [-]

Personally I would have no problem with not bringing up my children with a belief in Santa, but I would worry about how this would affect my and my family's status. What if my kids told other children that Santa didn't exist? Would they be upset? What would their parents think?

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 21 December 2010 01:53:41AM 12 points [-]

It would be valuable training in the fact that everyone else in the world is crazy.

Comment author: David_Gerard 21 December 2010 12:35:08PM *  6 points [-]

I'm still wondering how to deal with the possibility of my daughter assuming something is just a fun play-along story (Tooth Fairy, Father Christmas, Jesus, the Liberal Democrats) and then encountering a playmate who doesn't know it's a story. The fallout should be interesting, at least. I am torn as to how to tell her when it's rude to take away people's erroneous beliefs.

Edit: Oh Dawkins, she's likely to go to the local Church of England primary school. (My girlfriend is an active member of said church.) [All the other local primaries are Catholic, dismal failures or both.] This will be tons of fun for everyone, I'm sure (he said with trepidation). The vicar could out-argue a six year old; I'm really not sure about many of the church members, however.

Comment author: TobyBartels 30 December 2010 06:30:44AM *  0 points [-]

The vicar could out-argue a six year old

I've read this twice now (the bold ‘Edit’ made me check again), and each time I first read it as a claim that the vicar is a good debater. (Man, he could out-argue a six-year-old!) Then I think again.

Comment author: David_Gerard 31 December 2010 10:53:27AM *  -1 points [-]

:-) It was a statement about the other members of the church (who I suspect couldn't), not about the vicar (who is smart and knowledgeable and an excellent fellow).

Comment author: listic 26 December 2010 05:27:33PM *  0 points [-]

Are you saying that it's hard to find a secular school in England? (shock)

I was born in Soviet Russia and kind of used to the opposite

Comment author: David_Gerard 26 December 2010 08:43:20PM -1 points [-]

Oh no, there's always a secular school around. It's usually unbelievably terrible, at least in poor areas like this.