Six blind men were discussing exactly what they believed an elephant to be, since each had heard how strange the creature was, yet none had ever seen one before. So the blind men found someone to get them an elephant that they may discover what the animal was really like.
The first blind man approached the beast and felt the animal's firm flat side. "It seems to me that the elephant is just like a wall," he said to his friends. The second blind man reached out and touched one of the elephants tusks. "No, this is round and smooth and sharp, the elephant is like a spear." Intrigued, the third blind man stepped up to the elephant and touched its trunk. "Well, I can't agree with either of you; I feel a squirming writhing thing, surely the elephant is just like a snake."
The fourth blind man was of course by now quite puzzled. So he reached out and felt the elephant's leg. "You are all talking complete nonsense," he said, "because clearly the elephant is just like a tree." Utterly confused, the fifth blind man stepped forward and grabbed one of the elephant's ears. "You must all be mad, an elephant is exactly like a fan." Duly, the sixth blind man approached, and holding the beast's tail, disagreed again. "It's nothing like any of your descriptions, the elephant is just like a rope." And all six blind men continue to argue, based on their own particular experiences, as to what they thought an elephant was like.
It was an arguement that they were never able to resolve. Each of them was concerned only with their own idea. None of them had the full picture, and none could see any of the other's point of view. Each man saw the elephant as something quite different, and while in part each blind man was right, none was wholly correct.
This illustration goes to show that to understand the full truth, you have to also take into account other perspectives and to be open to learning that the truth may be beyond your grasp. Thus it may be easier to realize that though life exist on all the other Planets in our Solar System and beyond, we are unable to grasp the information because it is out of our realm of comphrension, as an ant on the back of a whale, or a fly zipping by a snail.
