Metaphors, what are they good for?

...absolutely nothing, say it again. Yet I can't stop feeling they're good for something, in the right hands. That is their illicit power John, don't be fooled...sure, in the wrong hands they can be used to attempt to prove wrong or unprovable things - but if truth is what I think it is i.e. not in the eye of the beholder or ear of the behearer, then maybe they can be useful in elucidating the dimensions of that truth in a way that cold logic can't (at least on an emotional impact sort of level) - that's my excuse for using some here (with an implicit regard for my own standpoint of course). When it comes to metaphors here's a good rule of thumb perhaps - turn them upside down: the thing that is important is the message, so what is the metaphorfor? No matter how good the story it tells or how well it lends itself to its message a metaphor is only ever as good as that message - beware of excrement wrapped in pretty paper. Maybe you can use the paper again though to wrap up your own message (after you've cleaned it)?

Here's one for you, suggested by a scene from Flushed Away. There's a point in the film where (I'll use their actual names but it really doesn't matter if you haven't seen it) Roddy is trying to convince Rita that a ruby that she treasures so much is actually fake. After arguing for some time over the point, Roddy finally tells Rita that he'll prove it - whereupon he throws the ruby to the floor and it breaks into a thousand pieces. See (says Roddy), it was a fake - you couldn't smash a real ruby! The funny thing is, Rita is really upset with Roddy - incredibly upset - and is only consoled when Roddy offers to get her a real ruby. Oh, I'm sure you can see the message coming like a bad punchline: why was Rita angry at all - shouldn't she have been glad that Roddy had opened her eyes to the true value of the ruby? Hers was an emotional reaction - you've destroyed something of great value! The fact that it wasn't valuable shows that there was more to the value than just the physical ruby - it was the intangible hope that the ruby promised for a better future etc etc which hope Roddy smashed along with it. Now, what if someone offers to smash our ruby to prove it has no value? Is there something that has such value for us - let's face it I'm talking about religious beliefs - such that we wouldn't allow that ruby to be tested for its true value? Do we fear the loss of the ruby and the hope that it offers? Do we not see that the hope is the ruby itself, and if the ruby is fake we have lost nothing, but we have gained the truth - something incredibly valuable in its place? Don't try to protect your ruby, put it to the test - read anything by Raymond Franz for example, if you're a Jehovah's Witness. If he manages to show you your ruby is valueless when it actually is, be illogically angry about it (I was) but get over it (I did) - but don't delude yourself. Thinking something is valuable doesn't make it so, and a hope based on a valueless thing is (doubly) valueless. Smash your ruby*.

A second metaphor for the metaphor hungry. I'll have to tell this one backwards. This is in response to some comments that have come to me about my last blog, which was not my own words but some strong biblical criticism by Joseph Wheless. The comments generally implied that some of the arguments put forth were rubbish . I'd like to throw this in: if something is perfect it is beyond criticism. This means that anybody who does criticize the perfect work will be in the minority, and would be viewed with derision by the majority. Let's take Michelangelo's David as an example. Look at that Wiki page and search for the word criticism. Or do a Google search for criticism of Michelangelo's David. Now, I'm not saying that this work is perfect but it's (generally thought to be) pretty near. You won't find many, if any, criticizing it as a work of art. Listen: the bible is perfect, it's from God, it's a work of art, it tells us all we need to know to have happy lives and being the inspiration of a perfect God is itself perfect - you can add nothing to it nor take anything away. Well, if that was the case, you would find nothing if you Googled biblical criticism. Here's what I'm saying that means: if you have problems with the Bible's being perfect, you are not alone. You are probably in the majority. If the Bible were perfect, you would be in the minority, because even if you wanted to criticize it, what could you say? You certainly couldn't say "If you compare the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke you'll find they're completely different. A man can't have two biological fathers, let alone grandfathers etc etc: one or both of these accounts is wrong, therefore the Bible contains error, therefore it is not perfect". Isn't that reasonable? If the bible were God's word it would be obvious, as obvious as David is the work of genius - who could find flaws therein?

I feel very aware of death breathing down my neck in this short life, and it seems looking around me that I feel this much more than others. A friend who feels the same way came up with metaphor three for you to savour, which explains nicely perhaps why I (and he) feel this way: two men are promised gifts of cars, the first is promised a Ford Fiesta and the second a Rolls Royce. Then they are both given Ford Fiestas as gifts. The first is obviously pleased, the second probably not so, because he was expecting so much more. The application? I was expecting to live forever (really I was) and that's looking somewhat unlikely now from where I'm standing. Yet this gift of a "normal" lifespan seems to please, or not displease, the majority of mankind who have never laboured under false promises of eternity. My angst is explained but it still remains.

And so ends this metaphorical musing.

*Daniel Dennett says something interesting about the "universal acid" of evolution in Darwin's Dangerous Idea: "The most common fear about Darwin's idea is that it will not just explain but explain away the Minds and Purposes and Meanings that we all hold dear. People fear that once this universal acid has passed through the monuments we cherish they will cease to exist...this cannot be a sound fear;...how could increased understanding of them diminish their value in our eyes? Everybody knows how to answer this rhetorical question with another: "Are you so in love with truth at all costs that you would want to know if your lover were unfaithful to you?" We are back where we started. I for one answer that I love the world so much that I am sure that I want to know the truth about it."