Your relationship with your mother: a belief system?

[Eudaimonist]

So having a relationship with something depends on "believing" that it "exists"?

That isn't my point, but the answer to your question is yes.

If a man has amnesia, dementia or something like that and does not remember his wife then they no longer have a relationship?

Yes, they no longer have a relationship. Perhaps there is a "one-sided relationship", but certainly not a complete one.

You make it sound like it is my own set of ideas that I came up with. No, it is what I was taught by others about Christianity.

I hope that you've at least reflected on what you were taught and have your own reasons for believing it to be correct or not.

Maybe I am completely misunderstanding what I have been taught, but I have always taken that and other teachings to mean that with respect to the Christian faith it means very little to say, "I believe in God".

And yet how do people identify themselves on a census?

Who knows what you, I or anybody else will believe tomorrow.

That is true, but people don't usually change that quickly.

If a "designation" hinges on what beliefs are in a person's brain at a given time then designations don't mean much.

Perhaps labels don't mean much in the long run, but people seem to refer to themselves by what they believe at the moment. That is common practice.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Ana the Ist]

I see what you did there.

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

Bear in mind that "relation" can be a scientific word. You do have a relationship with the planet Neptune just because you both exist and you exist at a certain distance. If the Christ exists/existed, you do have a relationship with Him, for better or worse, whether or not you acknowledge it.

In other words, I have a relationship with Neptune whether or not I "believe" that Neptune "exists".

But, again, it was asserted that at least one relationship, a person's personal relationship with Christ, is a "belief system"--is nothing more than a chain of beliefs.

If relationships are nothing more than chains of beliefs then one's relationship with his mother is a belief system--he believes that he exists, he believes that mothers exist, he believes that he has a mother...

 

[Ana the Ist]

In other words, I have a relationship with Neptune whether or not I "believe" that Neptune "exists".

But, again, it was asserted that at least one relationship, a person's personal relationship with Christ, is a "belief system"--is nothing more than a chain of beliefs.

If relationships are nothing more than chains of beliefs then one's relationship with his mother is a belief system--he believes that he exists, he believes that mothers exist, he believes that he has a mother...

Assuming you aren't a clone...we can safely say you have a mother without any question that she exists (or did at some point).

We can't really say the same about Jesus as a historical figure...certainly not about Jesus as a religious figure.