II. Slippery Analogies
In
addition to the misinterpretations listed in our last article on this
subject, we will now look at how enemies of the Christian faith will
often misinterpret analogies in order to not deal with the weight of the
arguments using those literary devices. Analogies come in different
forms, depending on the communicative context. Broadly speaking, we can
differentiate between didactic analogies and literary analogies.
Didactic analogies seek to narrow in on a shared similarity between the
analogy’s source and target, for the sake of helping the reader understand the target.[1] Here is an example of a didactic analogy —
Isolating variables is like peeling an onion one layer at a time.[2]
The source of
the analogy is the action of peeling an onion one layer at a time; the
target is the action of isolating variables. What is similar in both
cases is the action of dealing with one aspect of a problem at a time in
order to reach one’s desired end, as well as the determination one must
exercise in both instances.
Here is an example of a literary analogy —
My love is like the sun.
Here the similarities between the love and the sun are
not clearly identifiable. The relationship is intentionally broad in
order to saturate the comparison with qualitative meaning. If one’s love
is like the sun, this could mean that one’s love is the object of
central importance in one’s emotional well-being, or one’s source of
emotional “warmth,” or central to one’s continued existence. The author
is ultimately the one who can tell the reader the rules necessary for
grasping his intended meaning.
Both
instances of analogy are intended to help the reader understand
something better. In the case of poetry/literature, the intention is to
help the reader understand the qualitative nature of the target. In the
case of, say, mathematics, the intention is to help the reader
understand that the process of isolating variables moves by steps. Both
kinds of analogies can take the form of either a simile or a metaphor.
Similes use the terms “like,” “Such as,” etc. Metaphors, however, take a
more emphatic approach. Metaphors are syntactically identitive (e.g.
“My son is a beast!”) for the sake of drawing out the qualitative nature
of the target, but are not actually identitive. Let’s look at how enemies of the faith err with respect to their interpretation of analogies.