You’ve probably heard the story about the blind men and the elephant. The story is supposed to help us understand that we can’t ever really know truth about God. Here’s the poem by John Godfrey Saxe:
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 mindThe 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,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth 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,” quoth 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!Moral:
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!
Get it? Just as the blind men got the elephant wrong so theologians will get God wrong since theologians can’t actually see God. But this is just poetic poodoo.
First, these guys are obviously not the sharpest burritos in the hallway!1 You’d have to be a pretty ignorant blind man (and not “to learning much inclined”) to grab hold of the first thing you touched and feel no further when the whole purpose of being there was because you wanted to find out what an elephant was like. Wouldn’t they, as they kept feeling the beast, be able to come up with a pretty good understanding of an elephant? Not only that, while they were arguing, each of them could have brought the others over to the part that they had first felt and then they would all change their minds as to what an elephant was like.
Second, notice in the story that there is one person who isn’t blind—the storyteller. The storyteller knows that the blind men are feeling an elephant and what an elephant really looks like because he, as the storyteller, isn’t blind. Thus the storyteller is able to judge that all the blind men are “partly right” but “mostly wrong.” Likewise, those who tell us that no one really knows what God is like, and that all of us might be somewhat right and somewhat wrong, put themselves in a position similar to the storyteller. But what gives them the right to be story teller? How is it that they see things so clearly as to know that everyone else’s claims are mistaken?
Third, contrary to the unseen elephant, Christianity is based on the testimony of those who said they did see God and then told us about what they saw. After all, Jesus said, “he who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9) and “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Thus John wrote, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us” (1 John 1:1-2).
Moral: Beware silly stories contrived to eliminate the possibility of knowing truth about God.
- To my foreign readers: I’m intentionally mixing three metaphors here: he’s not the shapest knife in the drawer, he’s a burrito short of a combination plate, he’s not the brightest bulb in the hallway. [↩]
Good article, Clay.
Whenever I tell this story, I also note some of the descriptions that the blind men did not use. For example, no one said that the elephant is like “a river running to the sea” or that the elephant is “able to pass through our hair like the air”. it strikes me that there’s a selective limitation in the example to imply that any description is equally as valid. But obviously, as those above show, there are certain descriptions of the elephant that even the blind men would all agree are wrong.
Excellent point, Lenny! I would have added it if I had thought of it. I’m glad you did!
Love this……passing along.
Roger Sharp
Dr. Jones,
Great article. The title of the story gives it away: “Six BLIND men.” They are blind. Blind men are unable to see the truth for what it is. And so are the lost. They are spiritually blind. “Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see” (Jeremiah 5:21)”; “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see” (Romans 11:8). But thank God that through the Holy Spirit, we are given the sight to see the truth, not exhaustively as God does, but we are genuinely able to know reality for what it is and recognize it. “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (Isaiah 35:5); “Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see!” (Isaiah 42:18); “The blind receive sight” (Matt. 11:5); “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” (John 9:5); “Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see” (John 9:39). When we are born again, the eyes of our hearts are open, so that we can see the truth (i.e. Jesus) and accept it for what it is.
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