Understanding The Elephant

Most of us have heard the story of 10 blind men trying to explain an elephant. Each of the men feels a different part of the elephant and comes up with a partial version of the truth. This story has been used to illustrate that none of us can claim to fully understand God, that no one religion has a monopoly on the truth.  

Only the narrator can see the elephant. The rest of us are all blind. Our experiences may lead us to different perspectives of faith. What if people of varying degrees of faith heard this story from the blind men. Those that take a literal view of everything might interpret the story as claiming that the elephant is God. Those with an agnostic view may be unsure if there is really an elephant. Perhaps the blind men just wandered around touching a variety of inanimate things and came up with a story. How can anyone be sure? Those that have an atheistic view might dismiss the existence of the elephant as a legend. Why would anyone trust the perspectives of blind men anyway? Those with a metaphorical view might acknowledge that there is truth behind the legend, and the story points to something beyond comprehension.

I’d like to end with an amusing inverted version of this story that I found online:

Six blind elephants were discussing what men were like. After arguing they decided to find one and determine what it was like by direct experience. The first blind elephant felt the man and declared, 'Men are flat.' After the other blind elephants felt the man, they agreed. ;-)