It seems you've conflated myth with lying when you call the St. Nick story a lie.

It's a trend, a bias I see often these days. Religion falls into this category also. It is now the trendy thing to do, calling these things at worst a lie and at best childish ignorance.

Rather, is it ignorance of human nature / psychology to label these things so? You did state you acknowledged it's utility, but yet seemingly distance yourself from it. Why?

I'd go as far to say the St. Nick story has at least one possible function, in that it is lesson whereby children eventually discover that the world is not always as it seems and that one has to confront disappointment.

Humans have always been telling stories. Why? Because stories give us a sense of meaning and purpose, giving us a structure to our world and life that we can operation from, right or wrong. Without such guidance we are powerless and inert.

When we set these "limitations" in place, we have a set of "knowns" to choose from and work with. Conversely, when faced with limitless possibilities, where do we begin and end? The end result is inaction, as one is still sorting through the endless options in a quest to discover the correct one to act upon.

Herein I think lies the issue today, people seem to be unwilling to make a choice that may end up being a mistake. It would seem that people are becoming risk adverse, to the possibility that they might at some later point discover they are wrong. There is rigid culture taking hold where people have to identify with a story and live and die by that lest they be socially crucified.

Gone, or rare, seems to be personal humility to admit a correction in outlook and the public acceptance of being able to arrive at different conclusions and seeing that as an acceptable path of development. The world has become more fanatical.

I guess at the heart of it, your article is then about which stories we choose to align ourselves with (bias), and that you seek a path of temperance, the middle way to navigate through the possibilities.

Your thoughts?