Season 5 Podcast 119, A New Voice of Freedom, Argument for the Existence of God, “Analogy.”

Season 5 Podcast 119, A New Voice of Freedom, Argument for the Existence of God, “Analogy.” 

Analogy is a comparison of two or more things with similar characteristics. Extended analogy is the ability to break down each element of the comparison. False analogy is to carry an analogy beyond its logical limits. 

Common analogies in science which are carried beyond their limits are 

·      Man is an animal.

·      Man is a machine.

·      Man is a robot.

·      Man is an accidental collocation of atoms.

When you claim that one thing is like another, then you are generally on safe ground because if only one point is similar, the analogy holds true. However, when you say one thing is another, then they must hold on every point. That is rare. The analogy may be falsified by one false comparison. A poet may exercise poetic license. Hyperbole is acceptable. A scientist may not.

Analogies may be literal or figurative. A literal analogy is scientifically measurable. If I say it is three miles to the next town, one may prove or disprove that statement with the proper measuring tool. A mile doesn’t actually exist. It is an invention, a convenient form of measuring something that does exist. We don’t naturally think of numbers or words as being analogies, but that is exactly what they are. The number or the word is not the thing itself. It merely represents the thing. Reality is external to language. Reality is external to the human mind. We use language metaphorically to create a common reality which we all share.

If we wish to carry the image further, then art, music, plays, poems, novels, etc. are not the thing itself. They are analogical recreations of the thing. The human mind interprets art. That is part of the genius of being human—our understanding of language. Philosophical problems occur when we confuse the thing with its representation. 

Theoretical science implodes because it teaches analogy for truth rather than a symbolic representation of their perception of truth. When theoretical science abandons practical science, they remove themselves further and further away from truth,

One of the greatest fallacies of science is the silly idea that we create reality. We don’t create reality. We discover reality. We describe reality. We paint reality with a palate of the imagination. We invented math to measure reality, but math is not reality. It is a symbolic representation of our perceptions of reality. Math is a man-made invention only. Math is accurate or inaccurate not true or false. Only reality is true or false. Reality is made of matter external to the senses. All reality is made of matter. Everything else is analogy. We live in an analogical world filled with allusions and illusions, chimeras and mirages, dreams and imagination. Only in the real world do we stub our toe. Schoedinger’s cat is a clever fable, nothing more. We have allowed science to pull us into a false reality, and from that false reality they have constructed an accidental universe. 

You would perhaps be surprised to learn that everything we say is analogical. Words are the metaphors of life. For example, the phrase black bird is not the bird itself. It is a verbal description of the bird. Black is merely an existential attribute to distinguish one bird from another. The word bird is also a verbal analogy for it is not the bird itself. Birds are external to language. However, we communicate through language because we have, among other things, the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.

We have a picture of a black bird in our mind. The phrase black bird merely conjures up that preexisting image. We may have a red-winged black bird or a yellow-winged black bird. The word black suggests the color black, which distinguishes the black bird from the robin.