Illustration, metaphors and similes - and why I don't like them

by Mickey mouse 4 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Mickey mouse

  The Watchtower is big on illustrations, allegedly because Jesus was. I think they can enable people to pretend that they're thinking about a subject when they're really not. In Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steve Hassan made reference to how the Moonies would brand any difference between members as a 'Cain/Abel' problem and this acted as a thought stopper.

  Here are two metaphors I see used to support different sides of the same argument here:

  1. Some theist ex JWs claim that those who become atheists have 'thrown the baby out with the bath water'
  2. Some atheist ex JWs claim that those who retain a belief in God have 'found the key to the cage but not left the zoo'
• 

  wobble

  Aristotle said "All use metaphors in conversation, as well as right and proper words" (The Art of Rhetoric)

  So, I suppose we are not using "right and proper words" when we do it.

  They can make a point, but as you say, tend to be athought, or debate, stopper. The thing to do is ignore the seeming wisdom in an old "saw" as proverbs are sometimes called, and put your counter argument.

  I like Andrew Bierce's updating of several well known sayings in his "Devil's Dictionary" :

  "A penny saved is a penny to squander.

  A man is known by the company that he organises.

  A bird in the hand is worth what it will bring.

  Better late than before anybody has invited you.

  Half a loaf is better than a whole one if there is much else.

  Of two evils choose to be the least.

  Strike while your employer has a large contract.

  Where there's a will there's a won't."

  What the old cynic shows us in his inimitable way, is that those old sayings and metaphors should be challenged for the rubbbish they are.
• 

  NewChapter

  1. Some theist ex JWs claim that those who become atheists have 'thrown the baby out with the bath water'

  UGH. And I am so very tired of this one. I've taken issue with it quite a few times. COME UP WITH A NEW METAPHOR. I hear it here, I hear it in real life, my friend just used it on me, my neighbor used it on me. I may start a topic thread just to introduce some new ones.

  As far as the second one you listed, I've actually never heard that one. It would be equally irritating if I saw it over and over.

  NC
• 

  charlie brown jr.

  Remember to Be WHOLE hearted and Not HOLE Hearted!
• 

  snare&racket

  You have to be a SQUARE in this world to be aROUND in the next......

  I could cry... how ...... SQUARE... Is that crap. What's worse is, I remember it because I once thought it was awesome... Shoot me in my square face.