About 6 months ago, I went to the mall. You'll never guess who was there. Santa!
Let's examine the evidence presented.
I saw him with my own eyes.
He was giving out presents.
The mall was advertising meetings with Santa.
He had a sleigh.
There were elves.
Are you trying to tell me Santa was in on it, all the elves were in on it, the parents of all the children were in on it, the mall owners were in on it and Santa's sponsor Vodaphone was in on it too? All just to fool me and the children? What possible motivation could there be for this?
Let's follow your line of thinking ...
The information given concurs with the information seen/experienced personally.
Saw him with my own eyes. Red suit, beard, giving out presents. Check.
So either A. They're executing the deception so perfectly, that one can't find a flaw in it. Or B. They're actually doing it.
Agreed. A or B.
Granted, whichever side you choose to go with one can certainly state/claim it's entirely speculation.
Erm, ok. I can only
speculate it isn't Santa. You're losing me here, but OK.
But at least my personal experience agrees with the information presented. At that point, what reason is there to be seriously in favor of option A?
You tell me. Why do parents lie to children, mall workers lie to children, sponsors lie to children, and people dressed up like idiots lie to children? More interesting question, if you didn't know their exact motivation for doing this ... does it make it any more probable that I met Santa? And are the motivations of all the actors (parents and vodaphone for example) the same? Why would they collude against me and the children?
Other than deciding that they can't be trusted for any reason whatsoever, or similar ideology I suppose.
So children should trust their parents, trust the mall, trust the sponsors and trust the idiots in the green and red suits ... just like you trust the government.
Actually curious here. Disregarding anything else, if all of a persons experiences with said object exactly reflect as much of the publicly given information as can be personally verified then what logical reason is there to be in serious doubt of the rest?
Children across the world get to meet Santa in a mall ... they all experience it ... it has huge publicity ... talk of Santa happens on TV, radio, books, its part of the zeitgiest.
What logical reason should I doubt the existence of Santa? Or am I just another conspiracy theory nut?