This has been my favorite story for some time:
Four blind men were taken to an elephant and asked to describe what an elephant looks like. The first man touched the tail of the elephant and said, "without a doubt, the elephant looks very much like a rope". the second felt the leg of the elephant and said "the elephants were like the trunk of a tree", the third touched the ears and said it looked like a hand held fan, the fourth felt the trunk and said the elephant looked like a snake. Each one talking from their limited perception.
That's how everyone can be right at the same time. Or wrong :) We can't and don't perceive even an appreciable fraction of what is.
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2 comments:
ABSOLUTELY! I love this story. When people talk about how one religion is superior or conversely, argue that none of the relgions can be correct--I think about this story--about how all things can be correct.
Of course, if they had been more curious, and walked around more, they may have gotten a better impression of the elephant.
And with all that poking and prodding, they may have also been trampled by an irritated elephant.
So the lesson to me is that you can either accept things at face value, or keep trying to learn more until you get trampled to death by an angry elephant.
I like this story.
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