Santa Claus could exist

Thank you. Before I begin rebuttals, I would like to clarify something. My opponent stated in Round 1 that he wished to debate that Santa Claus, AS WE KNOW HIM TODAY, could exist. This means that the common folklore and myths about Santa would have to be attributed to him, or Pro fails to meet his burden of proof. "If one assumes that Santa Claus and Mrs Claus have the ability to reproduce, one can see how today there can be not just one Santa, but nearly a quarter of a billion (accounting for any sudden deaths, accidents, diseases, etc). It is also, however, true that these Santa's would be quite, well, idiotic, due to the in-breeding, but that is irrelevant." Do you mean these Santas live contemporarily or is this a next-generation thing? Regardless, Santa is seen as being a being that does not die. There is no folklore of Santa begetting. Besides, your title says "Santa could exist" not "Santa could have existed." You're speaking of the original Santa Claus, offspring is not beneficial to your case. One man cannot possibly deliver to the entire world by the means of "flying reindeer." These reindeer may tire, they are sentient after all. If they are indeed going at a supersonic speed, they are bound to tire and Santa himself may have to take breaks, being a sentient being himself. Interesting article. "ï¿½ Santa Claus represents goodwill, so he will naturally give gifts to every single (good) child in the World. So we'll increase that 378 million to the full 2 billion. Or will we? Consider the fact that the population of the World, particularly before the Industrial Revolution, was FAR below this figure. Therefore, a few Santa's (going back to my theory of Santa reproduction), may have sufficed. In the past, there were far fewer people than there are today." Again, you're surfacing the idea that there are numerous Santas. Santa as we know him today is a single figure. He does not have help aside from elves and reindeer; he solos the whole thing. This may have been true in the past (the Industrial Revolution statement) however how would Santa do it today? If he's still solo, wouldn't it be more difficult for him to do all this since there are even MORE people? Impossible. Santa Claus would be one individual with reindeer that can fly. Santa must land on the house quiescently, gather the appropriate presents, go down the chimney, find the Christmas tree, fill the stockings, leave the presents, eat the milk and cookies, and go back up the chimney. Doing this 2 billion times is impossible to do in one night, as one house would take at least five minutes, since he is restricted by the fact he is not a machine. This is all speaking from a scientific perspective. "ï¿½ Not only can I point out the fact that the (original) author of the article demeans his own argument through his follow-up points, as he fails to consider his own reduction of the population to 378 million, but he fails to remember a very known theory written by Albert Einstein; the faster an object moves, the more time dilation there is. Therefore, Santa has more flying time than we previously assumed." Yes, 31 hours it was? Or is it more now? Regardless, since Santa Claus would technically be required to do all the things he must do in order to deliver presents, it is STILL not enough time, especially with traveling distances. "ï¿½ I can, very well, render all his arguments void by talking of space and quantum physics. In space, a vacuum, one does not have air resistance, therefore being able to move much more rapidly. All that is required is a continuous supply of oxygen, and appropriate protection for those in space. I leave the issue of quantum physics to the next round, where I shall discuss it in more detail." I'd appreciate elaboration, as I'm a bit confused. Santa travels by space now? :S. Lastly, I'd like to introduce this: 4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (2 lb.), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 lb. Even granting that "flying reindeer" could pull 10 TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with 8, or even 9 reindeer. We need 214,200. This increases the payload - not counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. This is four times the weight of the ocean-liner Queen Elizabeth. 5) 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles/second creates enormous air resistance. This will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as a spacecraft reentering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 0.00426 of a second. Meanwhile, Santa, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-lb. Santa (seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 lb. of force. If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now. Biologically speaking, of course. (Why Santa Is Impossible, http://www.jeremycogan.com...) Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://www.writersdreamtools.com... http://www.jeremycogan.com...