Comparison of the beliefs of Copernicus and my belief in Santa

Comparison of the beliefs of Nicolas Copernicus and my belief in Santa Claus.

In my childhood, I had a firm belief that Santa Claus existed. Every year on Christmas Eve, I would hang a sock in the living room (even though there was no Christmas tree) and go to sleep convinced that the next day I would wake up to find Santa’s gifts. And indeed the gifts would be there the next day, waiting to be opened by me. For all I cared, Santa Claus was very much alive and walking this earth. And why not? Throughout the day I would see Santa in shops, and this reaffirmed my belief.
Since we continuously shifted from city to city, one strange fact I started noticing since I was around 7 years old was that Santa Claus’ appearance changed from city to city. I could clearly make out the difference by looking at past photos. In fact, even in the same city there would be a distinctly different Santa from shop to shop. Doubts began to creep into my mind. At the age of eight I was in two minds, and by the time I was 9 years old I felt certain that Santa Claus was in fact a myth (I was also supported by a large number of my friends in this claim). That was the time when I told my parents with complete commitment that Santa Claus didn’t exist, and they congratulated me on having made this ‘path-breaking’ discovery.
In short, I used the following ways of knowing to arrive at this conclusion: reason and language.
Moving on to the great astronomer Nicolas Copernicus. Born at a time (15th century) when it was widely believed that the earth was the centre of the universe (Aristotle’s theory), Copernicus proved through careful observation that the truth lay elsewhere. He noticed that all the heavenly bodies that could be seen with the naked eye followed a circular path….. except Mercury and Venus. These two planets followed a zig-zag path. On further analysis he found that this could be possible only if they moved around the Sun. This conclusion was in stark contrast to the idea propogated by the Church. He further expanded the theory to state that the now obvious fact that the earth also revolved around the Sun, and the Earth was not the centre of the universe.
Copernicus’ allegation was deemed preposterous by the Church. Galileo later invented the telescope and was able to study this theory in greater depth. His findings also led him to the same conclusion. However, when he tried to bring this to the attention of the Church he was forced to retract his statement by the church. Galileo is very famously supposed to have said to the Pope that he was in fact mistaken. His quick thinking saved his life. However, in the years to come this theory was again proved to be correct. It is now hailed as one of the greatest astronomical discoveries.
Thus, Copernicus gathered empirical evidence and proved Aristotle’s theory wrong. Similarly, in my small way, I proved that the story of Santa Claus was in fact a legend. Copernicus’ task was magnified by the firm stand of the Church. He worked against popular public opinion which was prevalent then, and also did not have the luxury of a telescope. Comparatively, for children, finding the truth behind Santa is an infinitesimal task, yet it proves that there is a little bit of Copernicus in all of us.