In their book Logical Self-Defense, R. H. Johnson and J. A. Blair conclude with a chapter on “Advertising: Games You Can Play.” After spending 200 pages discussing logical fallacies, how to avoid them and how to detect them, they apply that teaching to TV advertisements. “At the heart of all advertising lies the claim” (248). Companies want to present to us, the consumer, a reason for their product’s existence and why we need to buy their product. The authors encourage the reader to watch ads attentively, paying attention to nuances, implications, and suggestions.
Because companies have to support claims of fact, they have learned to disguise opinion as fact. Thus, we ought to watch TV commercials with a dictionary in our hand. Businesses will also couch claims for their products in indirect statements, statements that they cannot make outright without being challenged.
For example, is Colgate the best toothpaste on the market? If it were, and it were objectively verifiable, the Palmolive company would make that claim. So, the company will make a commercial saying, “Nothing works better than Colgate in fighting cavities.” Look at that claim again. “Nothing works better…” What that really means is that all the other ten brands of toothpaste could, technically, be just as good as Colgate. All they say is that the other brands are not better. But the conclusion they want you to draw is that their product is better.
Businesses do other things to get us to buy their product as well. They’ll make preemptive claims, that is, they’ll make claims about their product that is potentially true about the competitor’s products, just worded differently to sound like theirs is better. Watch for the word “different” or for comparisons that are tricky. They’ll also make semantic claims, like Uniroyal’s “The Rain Tire” as if it is the only one that can drive safely in the rain. One final warning on ads… Companies can use “weasel” words which make their product sound better or stronger than objective claims would allow. Like “Colgate helps fight cavities.” Don’t pretty much all toothpastes help fight cavities? It’s best not to stake any faith in claims made by businesses themselves. Get your information from a third party source.
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Let’s shift gears to theology… Deceit is the modus operandi of our great adversary, the Devil. While the devil outright contradicted God before Eve in Genesis 3, he did so in a way that was deceptive, as if Eve would become “like God” if she were to eat the fruit (Gen. 3:4-5). Satan will redefine biblical words (like baptism) or redefine biblical actions and concepts (like worship) to deceive men and women into believing they are obeying God when, in fact, they are absolutely disobeying God. Satan is the master at deception.
Which is why you and I should believe nothing about God or spiritual matters which is not found written clearly and unambiguously in the Scriptures. God will not deceive us and God will instruct us clearly in what He wants us to know, feel, and do. “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3).
Paul Holland
