skeptics: how will you deal with your childs sense of wonder to the supernatural?

[Quintessence]

Eh, you define "exiting" and "reality" much more narrowly than I do, DP. Existing as idea is still existing to me and it is still an essential component of reality (just not physical reality). One need not take stores about things like Santa as literal truths; to do so is honestly missing the point I think. The stories are there to teach life-truths or lessons. The stories of Santa can be seen as allegories for the parent-child relationship, or as tales about morality. It's not about some literal guy coming down chimneys and leaving presents. If one's interpretation of mythology - Santa or otherwise - is that superficial, one is squandering its potential.

I'd also like to clarify that I don't view any of these things being mentioned as "supernatural" at all. I'd asked the OP earlier why s/he was calling these things "supernatural" and have not got an answer yet. I don't believe the "supernatural" exists either (or rather, I don't believe humans are capable of interacting with or comprehending anything outside of nature in any way whatsoever). I wouldn't label things like deities, the fae, Santa, or Harry Potter as supernatural either. Mythological/otherworldly, yes, but not supernatural.

The majority of the people in the US don't see them as narratives.

Proof that the majority don't interpret their mythology as mythology? Majority indicates that greater than two-third hold this belief. I'm pretty sure the statistics I've seen before are a good deal less than two-thirds.

The fantastical creatures we speak of in stories exist in the otherworlds; in a realm of ideas and imagination that can have just as powerful of an influence on us as the air we breathe and the soil we walk upon.

Not in my world.

Wait. Are you telling me that you *never* experience fiction? You never read books, watch movies or television, watch theater, play video games, or any of that? You've never watched Star Wars?! Really? No offense, but that is really sad if this is indeed what you mean. >_<; If it isn't, I think you probably misunderstand what I'm trying to explain. Maybe I can try again?

 

[blackout]

Burritos!

Every child should know a taco from a burrito.:yes:

 

[blackout]

Anyone who has suspended disbelief long enough to personally engage in a movie or read a novel,
has entered into an'other'world. They have entered into the life, the world, the word, the I'mage/Vision of a mythology.

 

[Sunstone]

If I had a child, I would crush his sense of wonderment beneath my heel, and then enjoy his lamitations.

 

[Quintessence]

Anyone who has suspended disbelief long enough to personally engage in a movie or read a novel,
has entered into an'other'world. They have entered into the life, the world, the word, the I'mage/Vision of a mythology.

Thanks for saying some of what I'm trying to say except simpler and better than I was able to come up with.