Santa must exist - the Null Hypothesis says so ...

Does this beardy bloke exist?
Scientific thought is a wonderful thing and the continual argument discussion and debate in the scientific community does allow us to throw out some interesting philosophical conundrums.

Does Santa exist ... yes or no. While conventional wisdom is that Santa existence resides firmly in the minds of most good children under the age of ten. As well as Hollywood, Coca-Cola and many other retailers. There is also a conventional wisdom, often held by ageing overweight gentlemen with white beards, seasonally forced by society to dress in a silly costume. Their premise is that Santa is a figment of our cultural imagination loosely based on a Christian saint.

Enter the Null Hypothesis ...
The null hypothesis is a hypothesis which the researcher tries to disprove, reject or nullify. The 'null' often refers to the common view of something, while the alternative hypothesis is what the researcher really thinks is the cause of a phenomenon.
Source -- https://explorable.com/null-hypothesis 
Let us look at this in simplistic terms, through twisted reasoning we have:
  • Hypothesis A - Santa does not exist - a sincere view held by beardy blokes* and most cynical parents.
  • Hypothesis B - Santa does exist, an equally sincere view held by most children under ten, Hollywood, CocaCola and others.
As you can see Hypothesis B cancels out Hypothesis A - as there is no evidence to entirely disprove the existence of Santa (Richard Dawkins fans, please calm down). As well as the equal conundrum that there is not evidence to entirely prove his existence either. Yet there is an accumulation of social evidence to suggest that there is a likelihood. 

In this sense, we can apply the null hypothesis in both directions - meaning that in terms of evidence and a philosophical approach to science - Santa must exist.


*Andrew would like it to be known that he also belongs to this select clan of bearded gentlemen. He also wishes to assert that this is an attempt at a humorous article - please do not take it (too) seriously.



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