Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <cctr114 AT it.canterbury.ac.nz>]

Christine quoted:-

>"Men are willing to live, fight, and die for myths, as witness the
>current bloodbath in modern Israel between Jews and Arabs. 2500 years
>ago, these peoples' ancestors contended with each other for control of
>the land, and they are at it again today. People are dying because of a
>myth that a God set aside a piece of land to be theirs solely. Maybe,
>one day, all will realize they need to put aside the myths that divide
>us from each other and live in brotherly harmony and peace."

A story is told of a king who, within his realm, had a town of 
blind people. One day he decided to take his elephant and visit the
town to see what the blind people thought of it. Once he had arrived
some of them felt the animal and one said, ``It's like a snake with
two holes in the end of it.''
  Immediately another said, ``No, an elephant is like a great tree.''
  Another, ``You're both wrong, an elephant is like a rough wall.''
  A fourth said, ``It is like a snake, but there are no holes at the
  end.''
Eventually the King took his elephant away and pondered their 
responses.

Such a story is only funny to those who know what an elephant is.
People who make extravagent claims like the one Christine quoted
want us to beleive that they understand the ``big picture''. The
basic problem is that they are trying to tell people who claim to have 
experienced the elephant first hand that, in fact, there is no
elephant. 


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