Thoughts on Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 1.2F

Text (pages 10-12) [comments in square brackets]

[Consider this analogy. Someone invents a “missing the mark” compass.  It cannot align with the magnetic field, but it looks really beautiful.  It becomes so popular that people use it with confidence.  Buildings go up slightly misaligned with other buildings. New streets do not parallel the old streets.  The sewers do not align, spilling sewage into the boulevards.  The entire city looks out of kilter.

Hundreds of experts are hired to straighten out the works.  They conclude that the beautiful compass should be standard and the old city should be abandoned.  But the ship-owners are losing money and cannot pay for evacuation.  Their ships are going out and not returning.  The city verges on bankruptcy.  Chaos threatens.

Then someone at the shipyards discovers that the popular – mandated – beautiful – compass somehow does not point to the true magnetic pole.  That is why the ships are getting lost and not returning.  That person is subjected to persecution.  ‘He’ hates the beautiful.]