False equivalence?

I was showed a video on YouTube, Cruise ships vs. Battleships. Apparently, these are used as metaphors for Churches. The video insinuates that a Battleship is synonymous to going to a Bible Believing church vs. a cruise ship or in this case, a non Bible believing church where you're not receiving biblical truth. 

The video you described appears to engage in a logical fallacy known as "false equivalence." This fallacy occurs when two things are compared as if they are equivalent, but upon closer examination, they have significant differences that make the comparison invalid.

In this case, the video uses metaphors to compare Bible-believing churches to battleships and non-Bible-believing churches to cruise ships. Here's why this constitutes a false equivalence:

1. **Different Functions and Purposes**: Battleships and cruise ships serve fundamentally different purposes. A battleship is designed for combat and defense, while a cruise ship is intended for leisure and comfort. Equating these to types of churches presupposes that non-Bible-believing churches are inherently indulgent and superficial, while Bible-believing churches are serious and purposeful. This is an oversimplified and biased comparison that doesn't account for the diverse functions and missions of different churches.

2. **Loaded Language**: The comparison uses emotionally loaded terms (battleship vs. cruise ship) to bias the audience's perception. Battleships may be seen as strong and purposeful, while cruise ships may be seen as indulgent and non-essential. This loaded language influences the audience to draw a conclusion that might not be based on objective analysis.

3. **Oversimplification**: Reducing the complexities of religious institutions to two starkly different types oversimplifies the reality. Churches, like any institutions, vary widely in their beliefs, practices, and approaches to worship and community service. The metaphor fails to capture this complexity, leading to an inaccurate generalization.

4. **Strawman Fallacy**: The metaphor might also be setting up a strawman argument, where the non-Bible-believing church is depicted in an exaggeratedly negative light to make the Bible-believing church appear more favorable. This misrepresentation distracts from a fair and constructive discussion.

5. **Implied Superiority**: By using the metaphor of a battleship for a Bible-believing church, the video implies that these churches are superior in strength, purpose, and effectiveness. This implied superiority is not substantiated by any objective criteria and relies solely on the connotations of the chosen metaphors.

In summary, the video uses a false equivalence by comparing churches to battleships and cruise ships. This comparison is not valid due to differences in function, use of loaded language, oversimplification, potential strawman arguments, and implied but unsupported superiority. For a fair assessment of different types of churches, it's important to use objective and nuanced criteria rather than overly simplistic metaphors.

I don't think it's wrong to say that churches differ in this respect. While all Christian churches have their beliefs rooted in the Bible, there are some that operate on a straight reading of the text, some that include interpretation of the text, and some that develop beliefs that aren't based on the text. 

That said, a metaphor is meant to illustrate a point in a way that's easy to understand, even if it's not literally true. Using ships as a metaphor to talk about churches could be a good metaphor, or it could be a bad one. Really depends on how it's used to illustrate the point.

Metaphors and similes describe something by creating an image in the mind. They are helpful because they are often more evocative than simple adjectives. For example: “He is very good at sales” can be rephrased to: “He could ice to an Eskimo.”

I don’t see the metaphoric relationship between the battleship and the cruise ship, nor do I understand what Biblical truth is. Given so many internal contradictions in the Bible, by what standard does one determine the truth?