You might know the story, a group of blind men come across an elephant. The blind man touching the trunk thinks the elephant is a giant hairy snake. Another, feeling a leg assumes he has come across a tree trunk. And the blind man touching the ear, a fan. In some versions of the story, as they describe what they find they accuse each other of being dishonest and come to blows.
It is a powerful concept. It acknowledges that each religion or belief system has something going for it. They have part of the truth, while at the same time relativising any truth claim. A believer in either a religion or a worldview might know some truth. But no one knows enough truth to demand that someone else ought to believe what they believe.
Not only is it powerful. But it also has a sneaky move. The storyteller knows that there is an elephant in the room. And so, they know that every blind man only has part of the truth. But wait a minute. How does the storyteller alone know there is an elephant? What enables them to make this truth claim while everyone else only knows part of the truth. Once you realise this, the story is like an elephant in the room with the corresponding mess on the floor.
What we need is some objective, overarching view of belief systems. We need someone or something not trapped in its own paradigm. Could this be Chatgpt?
Here’s what I asked Chatgpt:
‘What are some of the different ways humanity have conceived or understood the nature of ultimate reality, be it God or something else? And could you please give me some quotes from some sources to prove your points?’
Chatgpt then laid out its answer which I shared at the bottom with a link. But what I thought might be fun would be to reframe its reply using the parable of the Blindmen and the Elephant. Along the way I share Chatgpt’s answer in italics.
1. Pantheism – All is the Elephant including the Blind men
‘Pantheism sees ultimate reality as the totality of everything — God is not a separate being but is equivalent to the universe or nature itself.’
The elephant is mind-bogglingly big. For it is everything. And so, we and the blind men are part of the elephant. We exist in the elephant. And, by definition, there is no distinct elephant to touch or discover, for all is the ELEPHANT.
2. Panentheism – The Elephant is all and so the blindmen are the elephant. But the elephant is more than all.
God is immanent in the world but also transcends it. This view is found in some strands of Hinduism, Christian mysticism, and process theology.
The elephant can be discovered in our world for it is the world. As a blind man pokes the ground he is poking the elephant. And as he puts on his shoe, he is putting on the elephant. But the elephant is also putting on the blind man. For the elephant is ALL. But the elephant, at the same time, isn’t limited to the physical world. It transcends the physical world and, therefore, can not be fully discovered or known.
3. Atheism / Naturalism – The Elephant is physics popping off and no more than that
Here, ultimate reality is not a being or consciousness, but the physical universe governed by natural laws.
The elephant is not alive and nor are the blind men. All is a set of chemical processes underpinned by physics. Somehow out of this no-life life has arisen. And yet, since the elephant and the blind men are just a physics and chemistry set popping off the blind men and the elephant have no value, purpose or meaning. They are the product of blind forces that don’t care that they are blind and don’t even know they exist.
4. Mysticism – The Elephant cannot be described by anyone blind or otherwise
Many mystical traditions claim that ultimate reality is beyond human comprehension and language, often described in negative or paradoxical terms.
The elephant cannot be discovered by touch, rationality or human sight. The elephant is unknowable. Whatever the Blindmen are touching and discussing by definition cannot be the elephant. There is an elephant in the room but nobody knows it.
5. Buddhism – The Elephant is nothing, not even an elephant skin
Rather than positing a creator or eternal substance, many Buddhist schools view ultimate reality as śūnyatā (emptiness) or pratītyasamutpāda (dependent origination).
There is no elephant. What the blind men have discovered, if anything, is an illusion. They are all deceived. And even the person who asserts that each Blindman has part of the truth is deceived.
6. Neoplatonism – We all come from THE ELEPHANT
Neoplatonism presents ultimate reality as The One, an ineffable, perfect source from which all reality emanates.
The elephant is the source of all reality. It isn’t the sum total of reality. But it is the source of reality. The blind men are touching the source of themselves, somehow.
7. Monotheism – There is a personal Elephant who made reality independent of himself but it is sustained by his power.
In theistic traditions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ultimate reality is conceived as a personal, omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent deity.
This description, opens us up to a twist in the elephant’s tail. For if the elephant is personal, omniscient – all knowing, omnipotent – all powerful and good. Couldn’t and wouldn’t the elephant, the creator of everything, be able to make himself known and desire to do so?
The twist in the Elephant’s tail
In contrast the story assumes that the elephant can’t make itself known. Which is reasonable for it is a dumb beast. But this is a significant built-in assumption of the story: ultimate reality can’t make itself known. It needs to be discovered by people, though they are blind. But what if the elephant could speak and explain itself? Suddenly, the blindness of the men is no longer an issue. All they need to do is listen.
The claim of Christianity meets this need. God speaks and acts. But not only that he entered human history to make himself known in Jesus, taking on human nature. The writer of John’s gospel, says the God became flesh and dwelt among us. Stunningly, the writer saw him. ‘We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father’ (John 1v14). The God who was unknownable is now known, for he revealed himself in the Son, Jesus (John 1v18). Suddenly the blindmen had someone in the room telling them who he was and making ultimate reality known.
When Jesus speaks, he speaks the very words of the Father (God). ‘The words speak to you I do not speak on my own. (John 14v10). Hearing Jesus is hearing God, the Father. The elephant in the room is that God has made himself known in Jesus.
And, there are excellent reasons to think we have good access to his words and deeds in the Bible. Given this, we, humanity, can see clearly, simply by opening the pages of the Bible to listen to Jesus and watch him act.
As these deeds and words of Jesus unfold, in the Bible, we also discover something interesting. Humanity is blind. Not physically, but spiritually. Many people at Jesus’ time refused to listen to what he said about himself or trust that his deeds were the work of God. The elephant spoke and said I’m the elephant in the room. But many people preferred to face the corners and block their ears. Now that is blind.
ChaptGPT’s answer
Humanity has conceived of ultimate reality in diverse and often conflicting ways across cultures, religions, and philosophical traditions. These conceptions tend to fall into a few major categories, each emphasising different aspects of what "ultimate reality" means. Below is an overview of several influential conceptions, along with representative quotes from primary sources or authoritative texts.
(See Chatgpt’s reply on this link: https://chatgpt.com/share/681c323a-a528-8013-a248-419903e6b2df )