On lying to our childrenFollow

It was the whole "you believe or you don't receive" thing at my house growing up. I knew around 6 or 7 that Santa wasn't real. I wasn't betrayed or hurt. I kind of figured that was the case when I never received what I'd asked for.

Edited, Dec 8th 2008 7:37pm by Katielynn

I'm mostly speaking of the 100s of 1000s of mythologies that actually exist that no one has really heard of. Perhaps people have claimed that a particular waterfall is the ***** of Rongo the sex god.. but that is not to say that some essence of the story existed.

I great deal of history can be gleaned from even the most ridiculous myths... most of the time more accurate history than recorded history.

Lol I remember one year I wanted this baby doll you filled up with warm water instead I got some kind of weird doll thing that it's hair grew when you lifted it's arm. Also depending on how much money we had sometimes all Santa brought was bakery items my dad got from work for free.

That's what I'm giving my son for Christmas...an oversized present box.

Then again, he's only 10 months old, so a big old box covered in crinkly paper will be the most fun he'll have!

My parents kept me believing in Santa for far too long. They were very careful to not be caught, too. As a child it was even a little embarrassing to have been kept in the dark for so long where my peers in elementary school were answering "the question" that they believed in the -spirit- of Santa. At that age I wanted to believe my parents over my peers.

I don't see anything wrong with telling them. I'm more likely to worry that the sorrow they feel when they find out the truth will outweigh the joy that the fantasy brings them. Personally I don't really appreciate having had my youthful naivety exploited to make me believe in what amounts to magic, in retrospect.

But that extends more to religion than to free presents.

Ok. Maybe ridicule is the wrong word.

But if an adult comes up to me and says he believes in Santa or the Easter bunny, and that I should too, then I'm going to assume he's taking the ****. And being of british descent, I am going to take the **** back.

I fail to see a difference if you swap 'easter bunny' for 'our Lord in Heaven who watches over me'.

Tho' come to think of it, I'm struggling to recall an incident in history that has led to the suppression or attempted annihilation of a people in the name of the Easter Bunny......So perhaps ridicule, contempt and derision would be a better way of putting it?

If the easter bunny was depicted as a flayed and bleeding walking corpse it would be a more realistic depiction of the ressurrection for sure.

FTFY

or am I /whooshing?

Which are then shoehorned into myths to lend them credibility. I believe that that was the point.

With the abundance of the Great Flood myths across many cultures, I think its fair to assume that these culture went through some type of flood.

We do have scientific evidence of that.

Yes, people make up stories to explain why terrible things happen to otherwise average people and not to this other near identical group of average people. They usually involve the group of people licking the wrong nipple on Wednesday night or whatever the current social taboo is and angering the mighty all powerful being who seeks vengeance through water, because that's just how powerful being's roll.

The problem arises when people equate things like floods, which are essentially guaranteed to happen given sufficient time, and creation myths, etc.

But yes, it's fascinating that all cultures share certain myths. For about 15 minutes. True story: When I was a kid, Joseph Campbell threw me out of a lecture he was giving at Columbia. I've got your hero with many faces right here, *******. Hey, Joe, who's laughing now, corpse? The 'Roo, Joe, that's who. Hahahahahaha man I can't wait to go **** on his grave.