I guess that's what I get for trying to put something in a nutshell that doesn't belong in a nutshell! Then again, maybe it's my lack of verbal skill? What I was trying to say is that someone with an easy conscience, a soul that strives to do the right thing does not live in fear.

Yes, I make assumptions, for myself in the framework and context of the text, the Bible. I accept its assertions. This, however, does not limit my ability to see aspects of what I believe to be God's truth in the writing and lives of other people. Man, I love the writings of Voltaire though I know a lot of Christians have quite the opposite opinion of him. T.S. Eliot, brilliant! Albert Einstein sought mathematical truth but he was also philosophically, if not religiously, a believer in God. Charles Schulz demonstrated Christian truths all through his Peanuts comic strip. He preached without being preachy and was eloquent. Can't you read of the life of Jesus see that He went about doing good and confronting evil and lies? They are many kinds of "truth" and it is not an equivocation to say that each in its own way points to the God who made them or better, the God whose nature they reflect. That's the way I see it. A humanist may acknowledge the same truths and yet attribute them to the human intellect. I can't argue with that except on a faith basis which is what I am trying to convey. Why should anyone believe in "God"? I reiterate, the choice is yours.

We've been around this bush a time or two. When arguments are coming out of a closed system with its own vocabulary, very little may be accomplished. It comes down to defining terms. Broad subjects, broad strokes on a limited page in the blog-o-sphere.

Ebbie, I am truly sorry if you are off-put. If you began to tell me about someone with whom you knew intimately and I began to argue with you and claimed that you didn't really know this person, couldn't really know this person, I might be off-put but you would think of me as ignorant and maybe much worse. I will not apologize for knowing the person of whom I speak and if that offends you, I truly am sorry. It is your assumption and that of others in this thread that God is unknowable, that God does not exist, that God is the same God in all religions, that God is unnecessary, etc. I have stated my case and have given some, hopefully, compelling reasons why anyone should believe in God. I can say with Paul "for I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed (my soul) unto Him against that day.", that day being the day of judgment ( II Tim 1:12b). What more can I say?