Lying to Children

[Sweetdeath]

You appear to differentiate between constructive imagination and ...er... some other kind. It is not the imagination that is different, it is the way we choose to use it; just like any other tool. Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.

It's the same imagination, but different use thereof. Pretty much as you have pointed out. To use an out-there parallel, you can use a hammer to help you build a house or to bash your neighbour's head in - it's still the same hammer.

I love the way you word things, Asmo.

[xSilverPhinx]

I think there's one major problem with comparing a child believing in Santa and an adult believing in Noah's Arc.

It's like comparing apples and oranges, at the most generalised level you can say that they're both fruit, but they taste very different, you know?

Children's existential needs are fulfilled by their parents. An adult's is not. What do fairy tales have to do with existential comfort and feelings of purpose? You can't really use them to explain gaps in knowledge either, for people who believe more for convenience and easy answers rather than to say they have an objective purpose in life and a surrogate parent.

I don't feel like my parents betrayed my trust when they played along with the whole Santa charade until I called them out on their bullsh*t.