Glen 20 is driving down the highway with his wife and kids. He's joined by countless other vehicles heading out for the holiday weekend. With little warning, Glen is passed by a gasoline tandem tanker going at a terrific rate of speed. The truck is being pursued by several police cars. Glen grumbles to his wife,
"Why don't they just let the idiot steal the truck. They're just going to create an accident."
The tanker and the police disappear over the hill but a couple minutes later a huge fire-ball appears on the horizon. Sure enough, Glen was right. The tanker overturned and is now aflame in the middle of the road. The police have set up road-blocks. One of them is 2kms before the accident. The next is 1km before the accident. The last two are 500 metres and 200 metres before the flaming truck. Glens blows right past the first officer attempting to flag him and other vehicles down.
"Why didn't you stop like some of the other people?" Glen's wife asked.
"Why should I? The police created this flaming mess and now they want to warn me away from it! Not a chance. I'm driving right into it."
Even in the face of the warnings Glen not only doesn't stop, he increases his speed.
"Glen," pleads his wife, "We're heading for a horrible disaster. Turn around. Look! There's another road block. Do what the officer says and pull over."
"Not a chance. They made the fire so I'm driving into it."
"But you don't have to drive into it. They're giving you plenty of time to stop."
"Nope. They're monsters. They created this fire."
"But we can go around. We don't have to die in the fire."
By now the kids are asking, "Dad, what are you doing? Are you sure this is the right thing?"
"Absolutely kids. Just follow me and everything will be alright."
"But dad, maybe it doesn't have to end like this."
"Yes it does. They made the fire."
"So what? They're also giving you a chance to escape it. Are you insane?
Stop - The - Car!!"
"Nope, the cops created the fire, so I have to drive into it."
=========================
Nice logic Glen
Back next week
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
That was a really scary story.
I think of you exactly the way I think about my four year old. It would be neat to be inside your head for an hour.
This is for you Makarios :-)
Makarios is driving down the highway with his wife and kids. The police create a huge invisible oven to roast the crime boss in.
The police declare everyone a criminal and decide to toss everyone into the oven. But luckily there is an out. No matter the size and your crime, if you send a telepathic message to the police chief saying you're sorry and you really mean it, the police will no-longer send you to the oven. (The police chief can do this because he sent his own guilt-less son to the oven.)
The police have set up invisible road-blocks. One of them is 2kms before the accident. The police send people into town with a book about the invisible road blocks and the tanker explosion. The book contains several scientific errors and contradictions. Not to mention the pages of descriptions of horrible things the police have done. Unfortunately, people have different idea of what the book REALLY means. And the town has several other people with different books making different claims. So Makarios chooses the book that was popular with his parents or the book that is popular in his country. He scares his children with these baseless stories and tell them how loving the police are not to roast them.
Glen, wow! You are spot on with your analogy to Christianity. But unfortunately most Christians will just ignore you. I have met very few who are really interested in challenging their belief systems; but the Christians that do challenge their beliefs usually end up changing faiths or leaving the faith all together.
By the by, Malarios' analogy to atheists (I presume) is really far out there. I don't know a single atheist that thinks hell-fire is real like the driver in this story.
I believe they call this a "strawman" argument.
But unfortunately most Christians will just ignore you. I have met very few who are really interested in challenging their belief systems;
Well, few people are interested in challenging any of their belief systems. It's difficult and painful.
Post a Comment