Parable Of The Car

The world is like a car designed by an engineer and given to his children.

The Children decided that they knew better than their engineer father and treated the car however they wished in spite of his advice. They ran it on fuel that the car was not designed to run on, so that even though it still drove, it knocked, and smoked, and was a danger to the drivers themselves, as well as to others in their path. In addition, the fuel that they were running the car on was actually destroying the car a little more each time they ran the car on that fuel.

One of the sons was an engineer like his father. He went to the same engineering school, had the same degrees, and possessed the same knowledge and skill. He agreed with his father about everything the father had said about how the car was designed to work and how to run the car. The son also told his brothers and sisters how run the car, but most of them ignored him, dismissing him by saying, “Now you sound like dad! We know what we’re doing!” The engineer son told them that nothing else will work right if they don’t at least put in the right fuel. The car was never designed to run on the junk they were putting in it, but it was designed to run on high octane fuel. Most of the brothers and sisters ignored him, some beat him, and others chased him out of the house.

A small group of his brothers and sisters believed what he said. They had been in the car with him when he filled it up with high octane fuel and it ran perfectly. So they began to run the car on high octane fuel too. But the majority of the other brothers and sisters made fun of them, and would drive the car but not refill it with high test. So even though that group of siblings initially followed the advice of the engineer son, they eventually decided that it was too expensive, others took advantage of them, and it was not worth the abuse. So they began to split the difference -- mixing high octane fuel with the crap the others were using. The car still does not work right, but they occasionally get moments of a smoother ride.

Those who are not in the family at all look at the car, the shape it is in, and how it runs and conclude that no engineer would ever design such a vehicle, and if he did, he must be an idiot. They also conclude that what the engineer son said does not work because the car still does not run the way it is supposed to. They also resent when the children of the engineer offer advice on cars to them because their own car is in such disrepair.