Its really a case of "do unto others."

For all the talk of childhood "magic," what my mum remembered most strongly was the sense of betrayal at the fact that she'd been lied to for years. And she's essentially an upbeat cheerful type.

But she was determined not to perpetrate a lie to her sons.

Now she did explain that some families choose to act as if Santa was real, and that it wasn't my job to evangelize the anti-Santa message.

Kids do have wonderful imaginations. And they can suspend disbelief and enjoy the fantasy just as strongly without being lied to. We don't believe their sense of wonder is so impoverished that we must plant false evidence of dragons, or lie about whether Alice's Wonderland really exists somewhere.

Of course realizing that one's beliefs don't stand up to support is a good training for evaluating the evidence for Ghod. But I also believe that we can cultivate good evaluative standards without having to practice deception.

Dante