[blowski]

Some of the greatest thinkers in history used metaphors. For example - Sócrates, Descartes, Confucius, Kant. If metaphors were good enough for them, they're good enough for me.

[pdog]

At best, metaphors are a useful mnemonic device. If they had any value or explanatory power, they'd be used in science. But they're not.

[blowski]

I see scientists using them all the time. For example, Stephen Hawking has described the universe as being like the surface of a balloon.