Gee Jason,
Now your post is way too long!
Thought I might offer a perspective from an agnostics point of view in this provocative article I found rummaging through the Internet:
agnosticweb.com/agnostic_brief_guide4.pdf
I must say that while it is a disquieting article, in terms of what most of us believe about God, D.H. Wilson does do a fair assessment on the issue, particularly in his criticism of Dawkins’ The God Delusion. But he equally ponders the theists’ dilemmas as well.
Provocative indeed - thanks for posting.
George MacDonald’s father once told him: “All a man can do is choose to believe”.
I think that’s true. What I don’t think is true is maintaining that because it is a choice, it is not knowledge. I go back to Paidion’s post above as saying it as well as I could ever put it.
Off doing other things (manfully trying to finish Dr. R’s tome for example, no less than 6 days behind schedule – my brain eventually just demanded I halt and go do other things for a while); just wanted to let y’all know I wasn’t offended by Allan’s joke, since there was some concern about that previously. 
Besides, that’s why I put in the tl;dr section. 
Agnosticism is necessary because a finite being like me cannot ever be sure about an infinite being like God. I’m perfectly happy with that. What’s more, a finite being like me cannot even be sure about a finite being like my wife. For all I know, she might harbor a dark motive for increasing my insurance cover 
. But I really don’t think so. She’s sweetness and light. And that’s what she’s banking on! Yikes! Paranoia, anyone?
As an agnostic, I choose to seek the good God because it’s the only rational thing to do. Basically, all the alternatives stink. As a pilgrim on a mad quest, I count the stuff I experience on the road to be true knowledge, but the Destination will always be essentially unknowable.
Come along now, Jason. We expect better of you… 
AllansS wrote: “all the alternatives stink”
Thank goodness; I thought the cat had dragged in another dead squirrel, and it’s only those alternatives, dang it. 
I’d written a far less polite phrase, but decided to change it. For the sake of our more sensitive readers.