I never felt as if Santa was speaking to me when I was a kid.
You got presents, didn't you? The gifts just changed when you got older.
I don't think there's a kid in the world who was fooled by the department store guy; implicitly we understood that those guys were sort of like Santa's priests, that they were there to intercede with Santa on our behalves.
When I believed that I was saved, I first felt an extreme inner change
I know. I felt it too.
It's the feeling of belonging. I converted at a Billy Graham conference and the feeling was made even stronger by the fact that while we were in the conference (at the Metrodome) the folks that earlier had so
helpfully charged us 10 bucks to show us where to park the church bus came back and robbed it.
So I know exactly the feeling you're talking about, how it's rewarded by adversity, nurtured by fellowship. How it's a self-perpetuating myth that turns what should be disconfirming to otherwise reasonable people into "evidence" that never fails to confirm the faith.
No, I cannot provide any evidence externally to others, aside from my behavior.
Well shit, Phat, even the Cult of Santa has the same effect. Parents perpetuate the Judgment of Santa because it
frickin' works. It's a great tool for getting your kids to behave, especially because the rest of society plays along. Parents aren't idiots. Kids aren't idiots either, but when they look around and see "independent confirmation" that Santa exists and is a real thing, not just something their parents made up, they believe it.