Your own personal Jesus

A non-personal force or energy may be "out there," but if it has no personal interest in me, then why I would take an interest in it isn't clear.

I think you’re absolutely spot on there... but the way you’ve phrased that little gem causes scientists (at least) a problem. A scientist will tell you that taking a personal interest in an indifferent phenomenon is his (or her) life’s work. They’ll also go on to tell you that if you’re only interested in a God that is interested in you then you are applying a selection effect.

I would rephrase as something like:

“I would be interested in God if He were an impersonal being; however it really appears to me that He is not. Quite annoying really” :-)

In my opinion, the most attractive thing about Christianity is the "personal" aspect.

And you asked about my motivation behind #3 “Accept that the omnipotent Yahweh wants us to recognize that we need his forgiveness for that transgression." I wrote this as an afterthought to 1 & 2.

My thoughts were:

1. Yahweh is indeed perfect so has no requirement for us to ask for his forgiveness. Yet he still wants us to.

2. He also has no requirement for a compensating transaction – a sacrifice; he has no requirements for anything.

3. However, we need to accept that a sacrifice (Jesus) and His forgiveness are necessary.

4. Therefore there must be something of benefit to us (not God) in recognizing that we need His forgiveness for our transgressions and that we need to accept Grace from Him.

5. God wants us to benefit from this "something" so places a requirement upon us to recognize this and comply.

Something like that – anything that happens (including The Fall and Tsunamis) must somehow be for our benefit rather than God’s, if that were not the case then God would not be perfect.

Current song: "Personal Jesus" -- Depeche Mode