John W Burgeson wrote:
> George wrote:
>
> " GLM: "I'm going to let Dr. D perform a life or death operation on me
> tomorrow."
> JB: "Who is Dr. D?"
> GLM: "I don't know."
>
> I cave. You are beyond me on this one. But you brought back a recent
> memory which was, at the time, fairly traumatic.
>
> At one time I participated in almost exactly the dialog above, taking
> the part of GLM. "Dr. D." was another name, a person I literally did not
> know, had never heard of, had never seen.
>
> What I knew about "Dr. D." was that he was being recommended by a cardiac
> man I did know and had some confidence in.
>
> That was in June of 1995 and I'm still alive.
>
> So the conversation does not seem all that problematical.
It would if you hadn't believe that Dr. D existed or that he/she was
a doctor.
There's a great deal of personal information about Jesus that won't
be available to us in this life & isn't necessary - his physical appearance,
what he was doing for the first ~30 years of his life, his favorite color,
&c. But if we didn't think that he was a distinct person &, in particular,
one whose qualities &/or actions made him worthy of trust, we wouldn't talk
about believing in him.
The distinction between "believing that" and "believing in" is valid,
but you can't believe _in_ a person unless you believe _that_ there is such a
person.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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