Episode #74

News Items

    Santa Claus

    • Hi,With the upcoming holiday season, I’m running into a problem at home. The more I think about it, the more I do not want my child to ‘believe’ in Santa Claus. She is only a year and a half old, so it is not a big issue this year, but it will be next year. When I mentioned to my wife that I would like Skyla (my daughter) to know the truth about Santa, she started crying and bringing up all those wonderful memories of her parents lying to her. What is the reasonable thing to do here? Is there a middle ground we can take? Any suggestions.By the way, ‘The skeptics guide to the universe’ is by far my favorite podcast of all. Keep up the good work.Arno van WervenDania, Florida, USA AndHello! Thank-you for your show! SGU is by far my favorite podcast.I take great satisifaction in overpowering a station labeled as ‘RELIGUS’ on my car radio’s LCD display with my i-pod’s FM transmitter while listening to your show.My question is as follows: Both my wife and I are skeptics and extremely agnostic. However, we do enjoy celebrating the holidays in a very secular sense; i.e. setting up a tree, exchanging gifts, playing holiday music, lighting the menorah etc. We have 4 wonderful children who we have lead on to believe in Santa Claus. Being skeptical by nature I admittedly have mixed feelings about this. Our rational is that it was fun for us to believe as kids ourselves. For myself I might also argue that learning of the non-existance of SC began my road from religiousity/gulibility to skepticism.I am not really out to have my mind changed but would LOVE to hear some skeptical opinions on the subject of Santa Claus and kids.Thanks and keep up the good work!Michael Bukowski-Thall DVMMaine USA
    • Dear Dr. Novella, First of all I have to thank-you for the amazingly prompt reply to my last e-mail, suffice it to say – you made my day! The podcasts are still fantastic, keep up the good work. I do have a question considering autism or more specifically ‘facilitated communication’ as I recently saw a CNN special about said topic and I was surprised to see no skeptical rebuttal at all which confused me as I remember reading a debunking on the SWIFT commentary. What’s the deal here? Or more specifically my question is – is facilitated communication real or not? I think this would make a good topic for your show. Warmest Regards, Mike KozlowskyjOntario, CanadaAmerican Psychological Association position paper on FC: www.apa.org/about/division/cpmscientific.html#4Martin Gardener article on FC: www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_1_25/ai_68966515

    Science or Fiction

    • Item #1 Fiction

      Study finds that women who eat dairy are 5 times as likely to miscarry as women on a vegan diet.

    • Item #2 Science

      Scientists successfully test a vaccine against obesity in rats.

    • Item #3 Science

      Scientists study the effects of antimatter as a cancer fighting tool.

    Skeptical Quote of the Week.