GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:25
False Analogy
In logic, there is a fallacy known as “false analogy,” in which one assumes two things are alike in relevant ways when they are not. Occasionally, the argument appears that “running a country is like running a business; therefore, good businessmen make good civic leaders.” This fallacy overlooks the fact that civil leaders focus on law, rights, and public welfare, which are very different goals and constraints from those of profit-driven businesses. In education, there is the argument that “students are like nails—you have to hit them to make them work.” This false analogy fails because students are not inert objects. Some people make the argument that “we can send a man to the moon; therefore, we can solve any problem.” This argument fails because it implies that all problems are equally complex and solvable, ignoring differences in type and constraints.
When the Sadducees came to Jesus with their story about seven brothers who passed a wife down the line as each brother died (without any information about how the woman felt about these serial marriages) and the woman herself died childless, they wanted to know whose wife she would be in the resurrection. First, Jesus pointed out that they were ignorant of the essence of the lessons they taught, for they did not truly know the Scriptures or the power of God. They taught superficial facts to the next generation without conveying their essential meaning. Second, Jesus zeroed in on their logical fallacy: a false analogy. “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven.” (Mark 12:25) Jesus saw that they were trying to combine two concepts which were essentially different—earthly customs and metaphysical life; they were creating heaven in the image of earth.
It is not unusual for people to construct a vision of heaven that suits them. Native Americans envisioned heaven as a happy hunting ground. The Vikings viewed heaven as Valhalla where they would fight night and day, the dead would be raised in the evening, and they would spend the night in banquets, drinking wine from cups made from the skulls of their conquered foes. The Jews hated the sea and thought of heaven as a place where there would be no more sea. People shrink from sorrow and pain, so they envision heaven as a place where tears will be wiped from every eye and there will be no more pain.
The Apostle Paul demonstrated how to avoid “false analogy” when thinking about heaven by quoting Isaiah 64:4, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
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