The third and fourth men have equally unfruitful encounters with other animals. Soon afterwards, he encounters an ostrich and concludes that this is an elephant, with feathers, two legs and a rather dangerous beak.
The second blind man passes the elephant, ignoring the Braille sign next to it. After a thorough investigation, he concludes that elephants are hairy, with two humps on their back, foul breath and long thin legs. One man goes up to the first animal that he encounters – a camel giving rides. So they visit a zoo and go their separate ways, exploring the animals with which they come into contact. Six blind men are in search of an elephant, to discover what it is like. Here is an alternative version of the story, which to me rings far more true about mankind’s search for God. The updated story of the blind men and the zoo The problem with this interpretation of the parable is best phrased as a question: How does the interpreter know that every religion is just a part of the overall conception of God? In order to know this, one would have to be able to see God in all his fullness and understand how each religion reflects just a part of that complete picture. In the same way, so it is argued, different religions experience different parts of ‘God’ but fail to realise that each is just one part of the complete truth. None of them realises that they are all experiencing just one part of the same elephant and that none of their explanations are complete. Each comes into contact with a different part of the elephant and is convinced that their own explanation is correct and that the others are wrong.
Another feels its tail and says that an elephant is like a piece of rope. The first touches its trunk and says that an elephant is like a palm tree, another touches its side and says that an elephant is like a rough wall. Six blind men encounter an elephant – although how they knew that it was an elephant the story does not recount.
The traditional story of the blind men and the elephantįor those unfamiliar with the traditional story of the blind men and the elephant, here it is: This second story is far more interesting and, I would argue, far more enlightening. The story of the blind men and the elephant is well known, but here is a lesser known account of the blind men in a parallel universe visiting a zoo.
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