I love it Kat! When you've said Love, you've said it all! It was Jesus who said "God is love". God is not willing that any should perish. There are about six different words in the Greek that can be translated "love' and the three most common are "eros" the love between lovers, "phileo" to be a friend and "agape" which is a selfless love for others. And it is this last that is the supreme and sacrificial love that so moves us and motivates heroic acts.

Steve, I didn't invent "faith" and it's not a refuge for the intellectually challenged though some may use it as such. I'm saying that the human intellect is limited and can only take one so far. Human reason cannot save you spiritually. You have to deal with spiritual maters ummm, how can I say this? SPIRITUALLY! That may appear as a tautology but it's really not. It's presenting a different realm which has partial conversation with the empirical world. You can approach the object of faith with the words of men but it cannot be possessed via a verbal, purely intellectual understanding. And Christianity is not alone in this. Zen comes readily to mind and many other spiritual disciplines can attest to the ineffability of the spiritual moment. But you are right in that it does effectively end any discussion on a purely intellectual level at some point. Our courts don't even ask for absolute proof but proof beyond a reasonable doubt or in matters civil, a preponderance of the evidence.