Religious Pluralism- A classical apologetic

“All paths lead to God. One blind man grabs the tusk and says, ‘An elephant is like a spear!’ Another feels the trunk and concludes, ‘An elephant is like a snake!’ The blind man hugging the leg thinks, ‘An elephant is like a tree!’ The one holding the tail claims, ‘An elephant is like a rope!’ Another feeling the ear believes, ‘An elephant is like a fan!’ The last blind man leaning on the elephant's side exclaims, ‘An elephant is like a wall!’”

            In India, the above parable is used to prove religious pluralism and I encountered it frequently.  I disagree with the claim that all paths lead to God and this example completely and I will attempt to disprove it from a classical apologetic perspective. In this weeks reading, Boa and Bowman in chapter seven discuss briefly how a classical apologist would answer the claim of religious pluralism  (B&B 209). One of the goals of a classical apologist is to prove that the opposing claim is illogical or irrational.

             In the case of this example, the analogy does not prove religious pluralism as accurate, it merely paints an illustration. Secondly, religious pluralism defies the law of non-contradiction. Christianity states in John 14:6, among other passages, that there is only one path to God and that is through Jesus Christ. This philosophy claims all religions are true and therefore Christianity is true. However, if Christianity is true and states that other religions are not true this is a contradiction. Thirdly, this description proves the opposite. Ken Samples author of Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions explains the following:

“Ironically, while the elephant analogy attempts to validate the truth of all religions, if taken to its logical conclusion the story really shows that all religions fail to identify God adequately. So rather than affirming religious truth, the analogy implies that all religions, at least in large measure, are based on false or misleading claims”

According to Classical apologetics, these proofs show the illegitimacy of the claim that all roads lead to God. 

If all paths do not lead to God then there are two options: either God does not exist or that there are limited 

ways to. I would not need to prove the existence of God to a pluralist, so my next step would be to prove 

that the God of the Bible is the True God.