Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: levy@ttbcad.att.com (Daniel R Levy) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Conversion Message-ID: Date: 19 Nov 89 19:45:19 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Skokie IL Lines: 23 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu < [I think you are reading too much into Dave's comments. I don't think < he was talking about forcing children to believe. The context was a < discussion about Santa Claus and other imaginary characters. People < had said that it was harmless for kids to have illusions. They will < grow out of them. Dave is saying that we owe the truth to even the < youngest child. I'm not sure I agree with all of his negative < attitudes towards fantasy, but I don't see quite the same chilling < implications in his posting that you do. --clh] How about some kind of middle ground, i.e. the child is clearly told, just as early as he/she can understand the spoken words, that Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, etc., is all pretend? This allows the child to participate in the fun yet not be "tainted" with a false belief. This was the situation that occurred in my family. My brother and I "played" as if there was Santa Claus for years, yet we knew from the first time that we hung the stockings that our parents were filling them. Ditto for the Easter Bunny and candy hunts in the backyard. -- Daniel R. Levy UNIX(R) mail: att!ttbcad!levy, att!cbnewsc!levy AT&T Bell Laboratories 5555 West Touhy Avenue Any opinions expressed in the message above are Skokie, Illinois 60077 mine, and not necessarily AT&T's.