Of all the things that Vonnegut could have picked what is the cat's cradle a metaphor for?

Vonnegut introduces the "cat's cradle" as a metaphor for different interpretations of life. "A cat's cradle is nothing more than a bunch of X's between somebody's hands" (165) says Newt, who had been traumatized as a child by the sight of his father dangling such "tangles of string" (165) in his face. And though there is "no damn cat, and no damn cradle"(166) the "little kids look and look and look at all those X's (166). According to Newt's cradle metaphor, one sees what one wants to. "See the cat? See the cradle?" (179) Newt says in response to inquiries about his sister's seemingly perfect marriage and Jesus Christ, both of whom are not what they people may think they are. Here is the philosophy Vonnegut espouses throughout the novel. People tend to see what they want to, and read into what is there in reality. Religion is no exception to this.