Fiducial?

I recently joined the youngsters in watching Disney's latest offering Raya and the Last Dragon. I loved the beautiful virtual scenery and generally enjoyed the plot and noted the morals. This review pointed out that it was refreshing to have the heroin Raya depicted with fatal flaws from the outset. The theme throughout the movie is the need for trust even when it demands the ultimate sacrifice. For a quick synopsis see here. 

The rest of this post is substantially what I posted a few weeks ago but then withdrew for further editing. It felt like I was handling dynamite, even if my desire was only to speak plainly about my misgivings. By writing as I do, I hope that, just possibly, my experience might resonate for some reader and, by knowing that they are not alone, bring encouragement. There are two things going on: my own personal struggle, and that in the context of the church community in which I live.

Fiducial: from the Latin fiducia ‘trust’: a standard of reference, founded on faith or trust. After identifying the two or more fiducial marks on the artwork of a printed circuit board (PCB), an automatic pick'n'place assembly robot can determine the PCB's exact position and orientation and thus populate its component parts precisely. Those tiny but readily identifiable marks are thus the basic of trust.

Three fiducials (stock photo)

Revelation: Greek ἀποκάλυψιν apokalupsis: uncovering, unveiling, disclosure: principally used of the revelation of Jesus Christ, especially a particular manifestation previously unknown... By inference revelations come via unexpected (e.g. supernatural) channels.

Divine impartation, recognition, revelation?

In Michelangelo's fresco God's finger is not actually touching Adam's. A father who does not physically touch his son. And there's the rub. If only I, you, we could touch or be touched by God tangibly and know assuredly. But he is spirit and we are mere flesh: chalk and cheese, oil and water. And yet John claims that God so loved the world and that we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled. But I am not John and anyway that was a while ago. Where, for me, are the fiducial marks?

In the book of Hebrews "Hall of Faith" we read that without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. This circular reasoning is the sort of thing atheists build castles on, whilst theists conclude that by reasoning alone man cannot attain to God. Which is all very well but wasn't it God who, dangling the carrot, first instilled what we now call rationale in mankind?

Baron Munchausen bootstrapping

Folk who too easily claim that God has revealed to them this or that make me suspicious. And yet, perhaps without revelation we humans cannot rise above the limitations of our carnal reasoning which, at best, follow endless logical rabbit trails. The callous assertions of Big Bang or unassisted evolution presented as gospel truth being examples. Argumentum ex culo and the Münchhausen trilemma. Perhaps what we call logic, valuable as it may be within the sphere of humanity, just isn't up to arguing the existence of God?

Like I said in a previous post - there can be no (rational) conclusion. Even so, for me the Puddleglum argument, though weakened, still holds. And that's why I am currently still rather precariously clinging onto what he calls his play-world whilst continuing to search for fiducials.

Mind you, there are some examples fiducials in the Bible: the annual feast of Passover to remind the children of Israel of their miraculous deliverance from Egypt; Samuel's Ebenezer stone which was to remind them that Hitherto hath the LORD helped us; the feast of Purim in the book of Esther that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city.  And of course Paul argues that the visible creation itself is an undeniable fiducial unless one convinces oneself otherwise.

I suppose the celebrations of Christmas and Easter were meant to be modern day fiducials but sadly their association has become lost in commercialisation for most folk. Nevertheless the dating terms BC and AD irrevocably point to the birth of Jesus Christ even if the early church made some errors on the exact dates and mixed them up with pagan festivals, and even though modern man tries expunge all such references with the replacement terms CE and BCE.

Some while ago I posted about a boy we know with leukaemia. His condition has been stabilised by drugs and the family are enjoying every extra day they have with him in reasonably normality. But the "forever healing" they and I have been asking for hasn't yet been confirmed, indeed I am not even sure how the medical profession could confirm it. But I'm still praying for his forever healing, still feeling that lump in my throat when I think of him, still keep asking the Eternal to "show yourself to me". And so I come back to, like Raya, will I still trust even though I might never see a fiducial that satisfies my intellect?

And then there is my context in the community where I live, a group of over thirty souls living and worshipping in close contact with each other with all (well, some) things in common. An underlying premise is that each member should hear God and obey. Which is all very well if only one could, or at least if only one could disentangle the ruminations of one's own mind. So in the absence of so doing one can end up either as a rebel or as a man pleaser.  

We have been using a cherry picker to paint our rather large residence. It's kind of scary that the basket can hold two adults and, at full extent, is counterbalanced only by the weight of the base unit. And kind of scary when it swings from side to side. One tells oneself that this machine was designed by capable engineers with due regard for safety so that it cannot topple over. An example of fiducial and trust - but certainly not blind trust.