You know the story. A king invites ten blindfolded men into his courtyard where an elephant stands. Each one feels a part of the animal’s bulk and describes what they have found.
One grasps the tail and thinks it’s a snake. Another strokes the hide and describes a wall. Still another touches a tusk and believes it is a spear. Poor elephant! The story is a parable originating from Buddhist traditions. It is used to provide an analogy for the world religions. Religious people describe God as Allah, or Brahman or Christ, but that just reflects their limited point of view. Like the misunderstood elephant in the parable, the God behind the world religions is misdescribed by his sincere devotees.
Pluralism
I’ve just got back from a debate on Premier Radio with John Hick, who is now an elderly theologian of international renown (you can listen to it, if you are interested, at http://www.premier.org.uk/unbelievable). Hick’s reputation has been built on promoting the radical claim that all the major world religions are responding to the same God. The parable of the blind men and the elephant is a good description of Hick’s claim. While Hick has provided a detailed, philosophical case for what is sometimes called ‘pluralism’, this basic idea is widely popular today. Isn’t it arrogant to claim that there is only one path to God? Surely we are most likely to believe in the religion of our parents or our society? Doesn’t that suggest it is narrow-minded to believe that there is an exclusive way of salvation?
Hick has maintained this view for over 30 years of his scholarly career and published many works to defend or extend it. One problem emerges very clearly with religious pluralism. If all religions are responding to the same divine being then what is this being really like? One obvious point is that we can’t call it ‘God’. Some religions believe in a god, but others are atheistic (Zen Buddhism) or regard god as irrelevant (Confucianism). So what does Hick do? He replaces God with the ‘Ultimate Real’. What is this Ultimate Real? To be compatible with all religions it must be beyond any of our descriptions. Hick states that the Ultimate Real must be beyond good or evil, beyond existing or not existing, beyond being personal or non-personal. The trouble is, with an Ultimate Reality so beyond all definition, it is little different from an Ultimate Nothing.
Who claims to see?
Pluralists affirm that all religions are equally valid. There are many paths to God. It all sounds so tolerant. But don’t believe a word of it! Pluralism is as much a claim that all religions are equally false as equally true. What is missing in the popular retelling of the parable of the blind men and the elephant? The king is the one who can see the elephant and point out the limitations of those who are blindfolded. The king has the best seat in the house. While Hick may dismiss evangelicals as arrogant, we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that the pluralist is also sneaking into the chair of the king. They are occupying a commanding position from which to judge all religions as equally wrong and equally right. But the flimsy foundations of this vantage point are philosophical speculation and politically correct analogies.
As Christians, we believe in a King who has revealed himself. He has spoken and revealed that a personal God exists, is good and has provided the only way of salvation through Christ. Given a choice between the speculation of pluralism or the revelation of Scripture I know which path I choose! Not all roads lead to Rome and many paths lead far away from God.
Chris Sinkinson lectures in apologetics at Moorlands College.
