Perpetuating the Santa Deception

Jimmy Alfonso Licon wonders whether pretending there’s a Santa is naughty or nice.

- Jimmy Alfonso Licon

Every year, millions of parents tell children a big fat lie: There's someone called Santa Claus who lives at the North Pole with his wife and a bunch of elves who make toys all year long, and every Christmas Eve, Santa distributes toys to deserving children across the globe with the aid of flying reindeer pulling a hefty sleigh. The parents know full well that this story is false. Why are millions of parents being unethical every year? What gives? There are a couple of solid reasons to doubt that parents are justified in lying to their children. The first is one many philosophy students learn about when they study what's known as the ethics of belief. The rough idea is that we have an ethical obligation to form our beliefs in accordance with the best evidence.

Believing the moon is made of blue cheese, despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary, would violate the ethics of belief, for instance.