A misleading comparison argument is a fallacy in which what is true in one situation is stated as necessarily true in a different situation.
Creationists and Religious Apologists will often make misleading comparisons. Ironically, these often act to disprove the argument they are trying to make in the first place.
Example 1: Religion may have been wrong about a few things, but science has been wrong about many more things!
Explanation: Science and Religion cannot be compared as they are completely different ways of explaining the world around is. Scientific theories are deliberately falsifiable, so that they can be proved to be wrong if they are wrong. Religious theories are unfalsifiable, and are therefore impossible to test.
Example 2: By attempting to define all of intelligence through physical and biological processes you are ignoring the realm revealed by intelligence. It is as if you are defining an antenna through the processes that lead to its manufacture.
Explanation: Antennae and brains cannot be compared because they perform totally different functions. An antenna could be compared to an eye because they both convert electromagnetic radiation into electrical energy. A brain could perhaps be compared to a computer, but they operate very differently. The manufacturing process of an antenna is not a good analogy for the processes that result in intelligence. An antenna is an artefact. Intelligence is a set of mental abilities. If an antenna has to be used in comparison, then a better analogy to intelligence would be the voltage produced by the antenna, but even that is a weak analogy.
Example 3: God's genocide of the Midianites is justified because they had to die for the greater good. It's just the same as you having to blow up a bridge that has civilians on it, in order to defeat an advancing army.
Explanation: A human being may well be forced into killing civilians in order to defeat an army, but the Bible story of the Midianites describes commands given by God, not human beings. We are told that God is omnipotent and therefore He would be able to defeat an advancing army without having to kill any civilians or blowing up bridges.
Tip: Comparisons of any kind almost always are flawed. Think carefully before you accept any kind of comparison as evidence.
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