And a Merry Christmas to you, too, Neil! Just give me a minute, my kid is sobbing for some strange reason.

For Santa to deliver gifts to all world's Christians in one night requires hypersonic speeds through Earth's lower atmosphere, vaporizing his reindeer & sleigh.

I can see him sitting there thinking, "How can I make this a little bit more insufferable? After all, I have to stay on brand here. Wait, I've got it!"

Just sayin'.

You have to admire his use of imagery too, just in case the kiddies were unfamiliar with the word "vaporize."

Twitter being Twitter, the responses varied, from people being just as petty and unhappy as Tyson to those who have tired of his increasingly desperate need for attention.

Being pedantically correct for a living is getting less & less endearing, dude

Yeah, a little bit.

Oopsy.

Why are you like this?

Another question: Who was this tweet for? Was it for his grown-up adult followers to pat themselves on the back for their intellectual sophistication for not believing in Santa Claus?

What?

Was it for children so as to, oh I don't know, give them nightmares? Maybe try to rob them of a magical period of life where fantasy and reality blur?

Or was it the fact that he conflated the Santa Claus tradition with Christians (let's face it, LOTS of non-Christians celebrate Christmas in all its commercial trappings) just another gratuitous swipe at faith, a thing he doesn't understand and I suspect is deeply envious of given that science, as amazing as it is as a method, cannot answer any of the really important questions in life?

The bottom line is, we can believe in science and yet be human beings at the same time. We can revel in fantasy and suspend disbelief when it suits us (ever enjoy a Marvel movie?).

And we can truly, honestly, believe things that do not fall within the realm of science. That is something Tyson and his admirers don't understand.

As for the rest of us...

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