Your earliest memory of your skepticism. Did it involve Santa?

[Ralph]

I'm 54 now....but I can remember things as far back as when I was 5 or so......including Christmas.

I also remember always being a little bit sceptical about Santa Claus----even when I was just a little kid.

We had two fireplaces in the house and I remember looking up the flue and wondering how some fat guy---or even a really skinny guy---could possibly fit-----and not wind up getting all black & filthy.

I also noticed the fact there there were an awful lot of houses to visit---even just in the little town I was living. How could one guy--even with magic---visit all those houses in a single night.

Of course this was explained by "Santas helpers"---but for some reason--I just had a hard time believing it.

Also--while I liked the happy jolly Santas in magazines---the "real ones"---in the department stores-----they always creeped me out a bit. Kind of like the way clown did.

I was supposed to like Santa Claus---but I really didn't like the whole "sitting on Santa's lap" thing.


I guess the reason this came to mind is that I'm at work now. I'm working with someone who just mentioned that she's really hoping that she can keep her son believing in Santa Claus for just one more year.

I should add--he's not mentally retarded or developmentally challenged or anything else like that---he seems like quite a bright kid actually----but he's THIRTEEN!!!

I'm thinking mom's maybe wrong about this but she insists that as of last year he still really believed in Santa Claus.........

For some reason--I just find it a little disturbing that an adult would LIKE the idea of a 13 year old to still believe in fairy tales.....

 

[Morrison's Lament]

Yikes, that's pretty creepy... 13 year olds + Santa = future therapy fees.

I guess I never really believed in Santa, my parents didn't make much of an effort to keep the truth from me and once I questioned the facts as I had been given them they gave in, I was in kindergarten. Thank Ed for cool parents.

--- G.

 

[Ralph]

Thank Ed for cool parents.



You got that right. While my parents--like most baby-boomer parents of the 50's- gave me the Santa thing---they didn't push it.

More importanly--they didn't push religion on me...too much.

Religion was my second experience with scepticism.

Since it also involved an invisinble man with magical powers who kept track of everything you said & did and rewared or punished you accordingly-----I guess that's not surprising.

 

[bruto]

Nobody pushed santa on me, fortunately. I imagine that it would have been hopeless anyway since I had a pushy older sister, who would have been the first to say "of course there's no santa claus, stoooopid!" had the opportunity arisen. Presents were always attributed to their givers in my family.

I've never quite understood how even supposedly strict Christians can attribute to old Santa a range of powers (violation of physics, omniscience regarding our sins and authority to punish them) usually reserved for the boss.

My wife, who was raised in Cuba, where the real celebration is Jan. 6, was subjected to all sorts of that nonsense, up to and including, so I'm told, the planting of fake reindeer droppings in the garden the night before. She was quite disillusioned when she finally figured it out (6 or so). How can you trust your parents to be telling the truth about anything if they tell such a big lie about that?

 

[Hawk one]

I was probably done with Santa at about 6 or 7, but the first memory of debunking that I really remember was from when I was 8, and having Religion in class. The subject of the day was all the cool stuff God had created. On the page of the textbook there were four pictures. One of them contained an oil drill (which I thought was silly, since I knew humans made those) two pictures of something I can't remember (probably some animals or crap), and a picture of a couple holding a newborn baby. And the teacher said something about how God made that baby.

"But" I said, having learned the important lessons of life a few weeks earlier, though not during schooltime) "that baby's made because those two people were having intercourse without condoms." (Yep, I did mention the condom part. 8 years and concerned about safe sex.)

This, to put it mildly, didn't go over well...

 

[Pyrrho]

Earliest skepticism for me involved the Tooth Fairy. Worst backlash I ever got regarding skepticism involved Santa Claus, though, as in "Don't you EVER make your little sister not believe in Santa Claus..." Spoken through tightly clenched teeth. The elipsis contained the implied threat of physical violence, which was very plausible.

 

[Kaylee]

I first realized that my mother lied to me when I was 4 years old. I was so shocked by her hypocrisy (the word wasn't in my vocabulary, but the concept was within my realm of understanding) that I didn't cry, scream or even utter a protest. I think my jaw just hit the floor for a good 15 minutes or so.

Since then I've always been much more interested in actions than words.

 

[Godmode]

I wouldn't be so sure that kid DOES believe Santa at 13. I realized Santa wasn't real at about 5. I faked it until about 14, when my mom finally called me on it. My reason? I just wanted to keep getting those gifts!! LOL

 

[bruto]

Oh, it's too late now to edit my previous post, but just in case the cultural traditions police get after me, I should make the corrections that the fake droppings were not, of course, from reindeer, but from the wise men's camels!

 

[Hawk one]

Oh, it's too late now to edit my previous post, but just in case the cultural traditions police get after me, I should make the corrections that the fake droppings were not, of course, from reindeer, but from the wise men's camels!

How can I trust you to be telling the truth about anything if you tell such a big lie about that???

 

[Bob Klase]

I guess the reason this came to mind is that I'm at work now. I'm working with someone who just mentioned that she's really hoping that she can keep her son believing in Santa Claus for just one more year.

I should add--he's not mentally retarded or developmentally challenged or anything else like that---he seems like quite a bright kid actually----but he's THIRTEEN!!!

I'm thinking mom's maybe wrong about this but she insists that as of last year he still really believed in Santa Claus.........

Meanwhile, from a coversation overheard between two 13 year olds, "yeah, mom thinks I'm stupid enough to still believe in Santa- I'm really hoping I can fake her out for just one more year".

 

[Melendwyr]

I wouldn't say so, as I concluded that my parents were completely confused about God long before I realized Santa wasn't real. Unfortunately, that was a somewhat traumatic realization, so arguably that was my first real "skeptic" moment.

 

[ranson]

I always had more trouble with religion than anything. My parents had me sold on the Tooth Fairy pretty hard when I was young. Sparkly, powdery footprints leading up the wall and onto the celing were a pretty good effect to wow a little kid. Looking back, the prints (real feet, not sock/shoe or drawn) were made by feet that could only have been mine. I was also never what you could call a deep sleeper (chronic insomnia).

My conclusion is that my parents (likely my father) doped me in order my own feet to make the prints. An elaborate hoax, but one that I have to have some respect for.

 

[fishbait]

My conclusion is that my parents (likely my father) doped me in order my own feet to make the prints. An elaborate hoax, but one that I have to have some respect for.

Sounds like the Addams family on acid.

 

[Kopji]

I always had more trouble with religion than anything. My parents had me sold on the Tooth Fairy pretty hard when I was young. Sparkly, powdery footprints leading up the wall and onto the celing were a pretty good effect to wow a little kid. Looking back, the prints (real feet, not sock/shoe or drawn) were made by feet that could only have been mine. I was also never what you could call a deep sleeper (chronic insomnia).

My conclusion is that my parents (likely my father) doped me in order my own feet to make the prints. An elaborate hoax, but one that I have to have some respect for.

I'm fascinated by this conclusion. What steps led you to decide the prints were due to your own feet?

 

[Dogdoctor]

I am not sure for me as far as developing decent proof that the Santa of stories did not exist that is likely first though shortly followed by the tooth fairy the easter bunny and god.

 

[Morrison's Lament]

Ranson has me fascinated. The mental image of a couple drugging their toddler in order to use his feet to create footprints on the walls and cealing... Well, let's just say it's a theory that raises some questions

--- G.

 

[Tricky]

Earliest skepticism for me involved the Tooth Fairy.

That was it for me too. My very first lost tooth, I heard and saw my mother come in an put coins under my pillow. It never bothered me. I just assumed I was to play along with this game. After it became apparent to her that I was on to her, she just started giving me the money. (Even though I didn't believe in the tooth fairy, I still believed I deserved the money.)

I think at some level, I knew it about Santa too. In the first grade, when the class bully was telling all the kids that it was their parents, and Santa wasn't real, just so that he could make them cry, I just thought, "Well, that makes sense."

Worst backlash I ever got regarding skepticism involved Santa Claus, though, as in "Don't you EVER make your little sister not believe in Santa Claus..." Spoken through tightly clenched teeth. The ellipsis contained the implied threat of physical violence, which was very plausible.

Your mother was pretty silly to threaten you that way. Somebody always tells.

 

[Jyera]

...snipe... I'm thinking mom's maybe wrong about this but she insists that as of last year he still really believed in Santa Claus.........

For some reason--I just find it a little disturbing that an adult would LIKE the idea of a 13 year old to still believe in fairy tales.....

Since the adult mentioned here are parents. When a parent like something, it is not surprising that s/he would like the child to enjoy it as well.

 

[Freakshow]

It involved my realizing that my school teachers were not always right. Especially in the area of science. I was in elementary school when I figured out to start questioning authority, and not assume that those in a position of authority are always right.