A Retelling Of An Old Fable - The Blind Men And The Elephant.
A long time ago, in a land far, far away there was a great city sitting in a valley basin of a huge mountain range that separates the countries on the East from the countries of the West. Leading to this city were narrow mountain roads on each side that joined this city to the countries on East on one side and to the countries on the West on the other.
A long time ago, in a land far, far away there was a great city sitting in a valley basin of a huge mountain range that separates the countries on the East from the countries of the West. Leading to this city were narrow mountain roads on each side that joined this city to the countries on East on one side and to the countries on the West on the other.
In this city were six blind men who through some quirks in nature were born completely blind. There was a seventh man who too was born blind but not completely. Though legally blind he was not completely blind, he could differentiate between light and darkness. While these six blind men were good friends since their early childhood, the seventh man however was not exactly friendly with them. In fact he considered them to be simpletons and considered himself far superior to them in both intellect and knowledge.
One day a rich merchant from a country on the East led a huge trade delegation to visit a country on the west. Together with his entourage was a huge African elephant. Now no elephant had ever made its way through this city, so naturally the city was all abuzz about this animal.
When the six blind friends heard of this elephant they together with the whole city hurried to witness this giant beast. When they reached the place where the beast was resting each one of them went forward and being blind they used their hands to perceive the elephant.
The first one on touching the trunk conceptualized that the elephant was quite like a snake; the second touching the task concluded that the elephant was like a spear; while the third bumping against the body saw that the elephant was quite like a wall; the fourth grabbing the tail felt that the elephant indeed was like a rope; the fifth holding on to its leg pronounced that an elephant was very similar to a tree; with the last holding on to its ear declaring that the elephant was exactly like a fan.
So these six blind friends after their elephant encounter proceed to return to the home that they shared, everyone certain in their minds' perception on how an elephant look and all these six would later spent days on end arguing about what an elephant looks like, each one totally convinced that his view was true and accurate while his other friends are totally wrong and have no notion at all of how an elephant looked.
The seventh blind man on hearing the six friends argued as they were returning from witnessing the elephant, and realizing that they had beaten him to the elephant rushed in great haste to get to the elephant. In his haste he tripped on his own foot and fell forward, his face landing on some freshly excreted dung as the elephant rumbled away. All indignant as he got up with elephant dung in his nose, mouth and hair, this seventh blind man arrogantly declared, ‘I don't see what is so big a deal about an elephant, it is nothing more than just crap.’
And that, my friends, is the old fable of the blind men and the elephant re-illustrated. Now no doubt this is just a fable but what is its moral point?
The elephant in this case would be the Christian religion or faith. And the six blind men are all the ‘rules-based hairsplitting’ men and women who claimed themselves to be the leading experts and defining authorities of the Christian Bible (translated from the original Christian Holy Scriptures) and the Christian religious faith. Each of these self proclaimed experts and authorities are totally fixated on his or her myopic tunnel vision unable to see the full truth of the Christian Covenant and faith.
The seventh blind man is of course none other than all the arrogant know-it-all Darwinist atheists who pronounced, ‘Hear now all you people; men, women, children, beasts and cattle, creeping and crawling things, all things in the water and birds in the air, there there is no god but Evolution, to which belongs all praise and honor forever and ever.’
But that is not all, humankind whether the poor uneducated ignoramus or the enlightened cream of human social order be these the highly educated scholars, the deep thinking philosophers or the brilliant men and women of the sciences, they are all prone to the defective reasoning of the the blind men in this analogy. They all consistently failed to see the full context and perspective of their lives caused by their fixations on their self perceived brilliance of their superior intellect and intelligence.
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Last updated: 2012 08 24
First Posted: 2012 01 11
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