The Fifth Nail Conundrum

What we do, or believe, in the name of salvation may be the very thing that condemns us. And the thing we condemn ourselves for may very well be the thing that saves us. This is what I could call the conundrum of the fifth nail.

Religious faith is not the solution, because it only redoubles the quandary. Philosophy will never solve the problem, because by its own admission it is limited by the bounds of human intellect and experience. If the solution is to provide salvation then it must do so independent of station and reason. Science is no more than a religious glorification of human reason, and so must also fail to save us.

There is only one direction left to turn. But, if at this point you need to be told what that direction is then you obviously have not been reading the Fifth Nail blogs, or otherwise even asking the right questions (i.e. doubting everything you have been taught to believe). The fifth nail is a symbol for the right questions, and this blog is an attempt to expose the meaning of that symbol, and perhaps the most important question of all, which is more of a conundrum than a question.

(J.D. 12-20-13)

P.S. I started the original Fifth Nail blog, "Blogging the Fifth Nail" (fifthnail.blogspot.com), back in 2004 while I was living in Fargo, North Dakota, after reading about the legend of the fifth nail on the Internet. The legend, as I recall, says that a band of Gypsies (wandering blacksmiths) were commissioned with making the nails that were used to crucify criminals in Jesus's day. In Jesus' case five nails were ordered by the Roman soldiers, and five nails were actually forged, but for reasons unknown to anyone but God (and Jesus I suppose) only four nails were delivered. The Gypsies withheld the fifth nail, which consequently became one of those miraculous religious artifacts that circulated amongst the early Christian churches. But here the story splits, and two versions of the legend lived on. In one version, the Gypsies who withheld the fifth nail were rewarded by God for preventing the Romans from defiling the heart of Christ with the fifth nail. And in the other version, the Gypsies were punished by God for withholding the nail that would have been driven into Christ's heart in order to end his suffering.

So, the quandary of the legend is clear; were the Gypsies rewarded or punished for what they did? We will never know by any effort of intellect or reason, and thus the conundrum of the fifth nail is perfectly expressed by this legend.