Belief and Disbelief in Santa Claus

1. Belief and Disbelief in Santa Claus Most cultures teach children myths, in which they believe growing up until they get to a certain stage when they start doubting the authenticity of such beliefs. Santa Claus is one of these made-up stories, which has been controversial because most parents feel it is not right to lie to kids. However, psychiatrists argue that believing in Santa is a normal and healthy part of children’s development because it inflicts good values and inspires children to give gifts and share with the needy. It engages the imagination of the child, even if the one knows that it is fiction. Although most children believe in Santa Claus, but growing, they change the position to disbelief. The change is a process that involves the ideas of science, non-science, and pseudo- science in thoughts. This paper discusses this situation reflecting on the material analyzing changes in the mind of children from believing in Santa to disbelief. In this short story essay writing sample, we will discuss this topic in detail. In the myth of Santa Claus, kids are made to believe that a man flies around the world in a car with harnessed flying hoofed mammals. He enters all homes through the chimney and delivers presents in a single night. Children believe in the myth because it comes from parents, teachers, and other trustworthy persons that provide implausible information. The latter violates the fundamental principles of physics, and it is intuited even by newborn infants. It opposes spatiotemporal continuity, expectation, and containment. However, a child between the age of eight and nine starts to question the existence of Santa, and it is triggered by the development of the sense of skepticism. In this period, a kid becomes curious about the sheer physical plausibility of Santa’s routine. Another scientific argument that causes a change in believing in Santa among children is the ability to distinguish between possibilities and impossible things. As children’s cognitive ability develops, their brains can reason and visualize occurrences, providing an explanation of Santa. The ability to think the myth through triggers the reasoning process in the brain and raises doubts. As children grow, their brain becomes adjusted to the consistency of things they hear from others and ideas about an issue, and their imagination and thinking capacity begin to conflict. Thinking defeats imagination because of reasoning that gives some factual realities to the brain. At the age of eight or nine, kids have a conceptual understanding, which causes the myth of Santa to become incredible. During the early stage of development, children that believe in Santa can delay in differentiating between reality and fantasy. The belief may cause interruption in cognitive development. Children develop the ability to differentiate between fiction and facts early, but it grows as they advance in age. Kids living highly fantasized lives can identify the boundaries between fantasy and reality earlier than those who do not have so active imagination, because they have the ability to create imaginary companions that help them to outgrow the fantasy. The nonscientific development process that causes children to stop believing in the myth of Santa Claus is the analysis of an argument that the story is given for fun. Although it is generally acceptable that parents, teachers, and other trustworthy individuals are supposed to tell the truth to kids in order to develop trust and confidence, they lie for the sake of child’s wellbeing. Good lies have no long-term psychological effect on child development. On the other hand, bad lies are oppressive and used to redirect blame at a child or exonerate the lying adult from responsibility for his or her words. A nonscientific view that causes children to stop believing in Santa Claus is a reason that at the age of 8 or 9 years, they can differentiate between good and bad lies. Another nonscientific process that causes children to stop believing in the myth of Santa is a “spoiler alert,” whereby someone who has learned about the truth of the nonexistence of Santa Claus communicates it to others who still believe in him. Even if a child has grown believing in the myth, his or her peers or other persons can break the truth presenting the facts that can cause a kid to stop believing. Based on pseudo-science, children, who change their position from believing in Santa to disbelief in his existence, have confirming evidence, but ignore other facts. Although there is a proof that Santa has visited their house with gifts, the question of how he breaks the physic law, enters through the chimney, and moves around the entire world in one night creates rebutting evidence. As the child continues to grow, he/she starts to question the criteria that Santa uses to differentiate between naughty kids and those behaving themselves. The evidence of gifts no longer convinces children of the credibility of Santa, and they look for a persuading argument of how he rewards.

2. Personally, I do not support the myth of Santa Claus because children form most of their values based on what they hear from people they trust. Giving information that contradicts physics can be detrimental in the learning process because the child may fail to agree with scientific theories because of the implausible information given by parents and teachers, and others. Since the idea of Santa is instilled even in infants, it interferes with their ability of differentiating between reality and fantasy from such an early age. Although there is an argument that such myths do not have a permanent effect on the psychology of a child, they can cause a delay in cognitive development. Children that highly believe in a made-up story can regress from accepting the truth, which can be detrimental to their imagination and the entire development process. Even though there are debates over whether the myth of Santa Claus is right or wrong, I believe it is not right. My argument is supported by scientific evidence that lies can affect the cognitive development of a child, interfere with the thinking ability, and break trustworthiness of parents, teachers, and close persons. Therefore, I do not support the myth. There is no good lie because the child can become a liar arguing that even parents, teachers, and other significant people are liars. There are better ways to celebrate with children without lying. In conclusion, there are different views on the reasons why children believing in Santa Claus change their thoughts to disbelief while growing up. According to the scientific approach, they stop believing when the cognitive ability develops enabling them to differentiate between possibilities and impossibilities. The myth can interfere with the scientific understanding of reality by the kid because it is instilled in his or her mind during the early stage of life and contradicts the physical laws. As for the non-scientific approach, it argues that children stop believing in Santa through a spoiler alert whereby factual information is given by peers that have learned that the story is a lie. Finally, the pseudo-science theory that causes kids to stop believing in the myth states that they seek for confirming cases as evidence. Therefore, as children age, the process of changing belief and disbelief is inevitable accompanied with negative psychological effects.