Elephant Prattle
THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT. (Based on a Buddhist fable)
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! —but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried: "Ho! —what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see quote he, the Elephant Is very like a snake!"
The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quote he;
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quote he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
So, oft in theologic wars
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
By John Godfrey Saxe (1872)
You've probably all heard of the fable of the blind men and the elephant. It's a story about a group of blind men who have never experienced an elephant before. They can only learn or experience the elephant through touch. Each blind man feels a different part of the elephant's body, but only one part, such as its trunk or its tail. They then describe the elephant based on their limited experience and so their descriptions are all different from each other.
The moral of the fable is that humans tend to claim absolute truth based on their limited experiences. All of us have a natural tendency to ignore or downplay other people's limited experiences, which, may also be equally valid. The story is a Buddhist fable that originated in the subcontinent of India. Other variations begin by saying that a king summoned some blind men to tell him what an elephant is. With the promise that the person who can best describe it, will win a large amount of money.
Then as each bind man describes the part of the elephant that he has touched, the King laughs in amusement and applauds them for their efforts.
Personally, I prefer the poem!
Pluralism for a diverse world.
Today we live in a pluralist or multicultural society, and I have to say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, along with cultural diversity, we see religious diversity, as people of faith and no faith, make up the society in which we live. That’s the way of the modern world. However, when we look a bit closer at the term “Religious Pluralism”, we find that it’s a lot more than mere multicultural religious diversity.
By definition “religious pluralism”, is to believe and accept that every religion is as equally valid as every other religion, and acceptance and belief in this will promote religious harmony and usher in peaceful coexistence between all religious worldviews.
The opening poem, based on a Buddhist fable, has been used by philosophers to illustrate, and help explain the pluralist theory that all religions only know a limited amount or “bit” about the unknowable god. They say that just like the blind men in the fable, each religion only knows a facet of god, who is something much greater.
Back in 1973, Sir John Hicks (1922-2012) proposed his pluralistic hypothesis based on the notion “that the world is religiously ambiguous”. In his publication “God and the Universe of Faiths”, Hicks states that “the world and god, can be experienced either religiously or non-religiously, with no compelling proof for or against any one religious or nonreligious interpretation of the world”.
Hicks promoted the idea that instead of seeing Christ as the centre of faith, we should instead see that Christ was merely directing us to a Divine being that was beyond and above our capacity to describe. He argued that if we understand God, rather than Christ to be the centre of faith, then we can accept that all religions are responding in some way to the same God, regardless of what they think about Christ.
This just sounds so nice and everyone together cosy!
Initially, Hicks considers the three main monotheistic faiths of the world, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. However, it must be stated that while Judaism recognises Jesus, Jews believe that Jesus died on the cross and stayed dead. Islam believes that Jesus was the Messiah but claims that God tricked everyone into thinking that he died on the cross, but actually didn’t (surely this is to claim that God is deceitful?). And Christianity believes that Jesus was the promised Messiah as proclaimed in Jewish scripture, he died on the cross and rose from the dead three days later, making the way for all of humanity to commune with our creator God.
However, Hicks later revised his definition to accommodate those of the Buddhist faith and atheists, because if everyone has a piece of God or none, then all beliefs must be included! right? (Buddhists don’t believe that there is a god). For this, to work Hicks removed the term god and replaced it with the fluffy terms “ultimate reality” or “the real”. Now I don’t know what was in his pipe that day! but when you start grasping for abstract terms in defence of your argument, you’re on the slippery slope into the arms of “Tattoo” from “Fantasy Island”
(Tattoo was a man of small stature and limited catching ability)
But here's the catch, if we are to accept Hicks's pluralism and declare that every major religion is valid, we must also accept that they are all equally invalid.
Think about this for a moment,
Jesus was the Messiah, or he wasn’t, for Jews he either died on the cross and stayed dead, or he rose three days later as Christians believe. Or for Muslims, God only made it look like Jesus went to the cross, died, and rose again, or as Christians believe, he actually did. Everyone’s beliefs can’t all be true and false at the same time, this is not some kind of subatomic mind-twisting game of Schrodinger’s cat!
But according to Hicks, if every religion is true, then every religion must equally be false, and in this, everyone shouts, there is no truth!
Now hold on a minute Mr Hicks, I believe I’ve spotted the flaw at the heart of your pluralism!
By accepting Hicks pluralism, we throw the baby out with the water! It’s that simple because we are forced to conclude that there is no truth. And the only accidental consolation prize is that the only thing that all religions offer is a path to some partial but genuine experience of Hicks ‘real’ or ‘ultimate reality’. Ach come off it, niceness, hippy trippy cool in the caftan, everyone is right no one is wrong doesn’t work, and more importantly, it doesn’t save anyone!
I wonder if Tattoo has improved his catching abilities because someone better try to catch that baby quickly!
Going back to the blind men and the elephant, the fable that lulls us into thinking that all religions hold a bit-truth about God. When we look afresh, we need to ask, who is the King that sees all and is, therefore, able to make judgments on the partial and limited understandings of the blind men?
Remember the King, who from his vantage point could see everything that the blind men couldn’t, the elephant, the room, and the blind men, nothing is hidden from him.
We Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is our King, and it is He who sees all and is in a position to judge all.
In scripture, we read that God promised through the prophets, that He would send the Messiah to redeem the nations of the world. Jesus Christ was the fulfilment of God’s promise.
Through his earthly ministry, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the tomb, Christ paid the price for sin and made a way for all people to return to a right relationship with our creator God. He fulfilled all of the prophecies that were made about him, yet the Jewish people continue to deny that Jesus was the Messiah.
Muslims trace their ancestry through Abraham’s first son Ishmael, and in their holy writings refer to Jews and Christians as “the people of the book”. It must be pointed out that Ishmael wasn’t a Muslim as the religion of Islam only came about after the Quran was written in 610AD. Having said that, Muslims also believe that Jesus was the Messiah. But within this lies a problem for them, in that, after the Messiah, God said that there will be no more prophets! This creates a major problem for Islam; would you agree?
Where do we go from here,
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the Life. Nobody comes to the Father, except through me”. This statement is deeply exclusive, simply because there is no other way. There is no room for religious pluralism or bits of ways that lead to God.
What Jesus offers to everyone is “open exclusivism”. He is the only way for humanity to truly see, no more blind men. Through his ministry, preaching, teachings, healing, and ultimately his work on the cross, Jesus revealed the Father’s love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, generosity, and kindness to all humanity.
Jesus provided the way for all of us to bring our sins and brokenness before God. He dealt with sin on the cross, and all of us can now find forgiveness, and call God Father. The way is open to everyone no matter what.
For those who are seeking God, you will find him through Jesus, because he is the only way to God.
For those who seek God, and are prepared to give their lives to Him, Jesus said,
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Lk 11:9-10)
Hoping you have a great day, and God bless,
Trev.