Relationship

I understand the point and scary though it is it seems an odd thing to say, but I guess it depends what Jesus defined as "knew".

This gets to the concept of a "relationship" with Jesus. It's a slippery notion, I think. The nearest I can figure, it's something like this: I know you. You and I have had numerous conversations and we've had a relationship for nearly 10 years now. I know of your daughter, but I don't really know her at all. I've never met her, I've never spoken with her.

The idea of having a "conversation" with Jesus is one many people struggle with, myself included. Ultimately that's evidence of a weak faith. Part of the problem is a tendency on the part of people -- churches included -- to think of Jesus as past tense. Jesus was rather than Jesus is.

It sounds like you further down the path of relationship than most. It seems you have a fairly good grasp on Jesus as present tense.

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On many issues on morality and ethics, one cannot take a rational stand without the help of some additional moral axioms.

I think that's true. Everyone, it seems, has some personal sense of what they consider moral. Nobody, I think, is truly amoral. They may not recognize the moral components of their reasoning, or may not acknowledge them, but I think they're always there.

The topic is far, far more complicated than I'm capable of exploring. I used to think I had the capacity for big thinking, though my training in it was lacking. Now I'm not so sure I have the capacity. That's not a "aw, poor me" statement ... it's just a statement of what I believe to be true.

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The alarm clock in the hotel room next to mine is ringing and has for the past hour. Either nobody is in that room (likely) or the people there are heavy sleepers. And if they had their alarm for 5:30am on a Sunday, they probably had a flight to catch. It's unlikely they'll catch it now.