What do you think of this parable?

Once upon a time two explorers came upon a clearing in the jungle. In the clearing were growing many flowers and many weeds. One explorer says, "Some gardener must tend this plot." The other disagrees, "There is no gardener." So they pitch their tents and set a watch. No gardener is ever seen. "But perhaps he is an invisible gardener." So they set up a barbed-wire fence. They electrify it. They patrol with bloodhounds. (For they remember how H. G. Well's The Invisible Man could be both smelt and touched though he could not be seen.) But no shrieks ever suggest that some intruder has received a shock. No movements of the wire ever betray an invisible climber. The bloodhounds never give cry. Yet still the Believer is not convinced. "But there is a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible, to electric shocks, a gardener who has no scent and makes no sound, a gardener who comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves." At last the Sceptic despairs, "But what remains of your original assertion? Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?"

What do you think of this parable?
the invisible gardener, week 3 in intro to philosophy...I like it...
Reply:I think its a very good parable. What would improve it even more would be if they could see no evidence of interference by the gardener in the state of garden, which is implied, but not stated.
Reply:Ha I found a loophole.....



My "Gardner" IS the Gardner........(Pantheism, Paganism)
Reply:Too much text, not enough wisdom.
Reply:It's a "garden" that we live in because our true purpose and identity is guarded, held in surety while we deny it.. It can not be discerned on the outer, because it is of Spirit, It's a knowing.
Reply:Nice parable, but those who believe in the gardener will still believe, and those who don't, won't.
Reply:you left out the possibility that this gardener can perform transubstantiation and influence the world when he desires yet still remain unobservable at all other times. you also left out the possibility that the gardener only comes once a month (cause there are lots of weeds right?) and wont be back for another two weeks or so in which case the two investigators would leave before he ever got there. maybe the gardener keeps the plants by providing adequate water and nutrients from an areal source and never has to touch the ground (which would also explain the weeds). what if the gardener, upon returning to his garden saw that there was a barbed wire fence and dogs around the boarder and decided to leave to come back another time? there are just too many alternate explanations for this to be a solid parable for its indented use, which is obviously to say whats the difference between an invisible intangible God and an imaginary or nonexistent God. what if God already knows youre watching?
Reply:The gardener died of a snakebite
Reply:The believers totally miss the last statement by the Skeptic. They overlook it as if it was never said or doesn't matter. They're still trying to convince others that there is a gardener, while ignoring the fact that there is no no perceptible difference between the gardner that they speak of and NO gardener at all. I wonder if they would feel the same way about their spouse accusing them of cheating with an invisible, intangible, insensible lover that only shows up when their spouse is not around?



Edit: esoteric... have you realized that atheists don't believe in gods or many other mystical beings, but DO believe in the tangible reality of the universe they live in? You supply an actual gardener that isn't invisible, intangible and utterly inpercetible, and we'll show you something that isn't mystical, magical, and completely REAL. Otherwise, all you have is speculation.
Reply:Oh wait, I get it! the Gardener is supposed to be God and the "believer" is supposed to someone of faith who believes in the ever present hand of God in all things, and the "sceptic" is supposed to be an atheist who never relies on anything but his own senses when deciding what IS!!!



The problem is, this isnt what would have happened if a real believer and a real atheist were explorers and happened upon this clearing. The believer wouldn't waste his time setting up an electric fence or getting bloodhounds, knowing that even if they did catch someone with gardening impliments in hand the atheist wouldn't accept that this was the original gardener.



edit: Confirmed Atheist, if you have a question for me please ask it somewhere else.
Reply:They set traps to find the Gardner in the Garden, but he is not going to be found in there yet. We need to search for the Gardner in the Gardner's house. The Gardner lives in his house but works in the Garden. He may even have workers that work for him in the garden.