Thanks for the clarification and the speedy reply - wow!

Thanks also for your question about the distinction between faith and the existence of god. My immediate response is - I'm not that bothered about god, the afterlife, etc, but would like to have the comfort of faith. I see many people who have faith that have some sort of certainty or inner strength that I wish for myself.

Reading that back to myself, it seems that what I want is the comfort of certainty - which is something none of us can have. Ah ha! I don't discuss this sort of stuff much, so don't often get the sort of questions to help me clarify my thoughts - cheers!

BTW, as far as the lottery goes, I'm in the UK and I actually do think that there is more chance of the second coming than winning the lottery - and that's a fact!

It sounds like you have a really good handle on your beliefs, which is quite a good (and rare) thing.

Someone once said that religion is certainty and science is truth. Too bad we can't have both, but I, like you, prefer the latter.