Robbie,
I understand that you are about to wrap up this conversation, but I want to explain why I think it is important to recognize the limitations of reason. Atheists and people hostile to Christianity and faith in general, describe their frustration with the supposed requirements of faith as 'being forced to leave your brain at the door' before entering church and listening to religious instruction; I call it cognitive dissidence. Regardless of the label, it is the 'fan mentality'; God is good so Christians are required to gloss over any doctrine that seems to suggest otherwise, in order to demonstrate our loyalty AND we are supposed to hold opposing ideas in our head by pretending they complement each other - 'God is Good' AND 'He commanded the Israelites to preform acts of genocide'; 'God commands us to love our neighbor unconditionally' AND 'God only saves those who follow Him'. As soon as we encounter anyone who points out discrepancies in our reasoning, rather than acknowledging the reality of their thought process, we are told to either moralize the situation by labeling the dissenting viewpoint as an attack on Christianity and dismiss the person as hostile because 'they are calling Jesus a liar' OR try to convince the person that they are crazy for thinking that there is a problem - "What is wrong with God requiring His people to love unconditionally AND His plan to torture sinners for eternity? They deserve it!' OR 'God makes the rules so He can act anyway He wants and remain Good'
As intellectually unsatisfying as this mind-bending reasoning may be, it is fine, if it allows a person to settle private concerns about doctrine and clears the way for the real task of the Christian life - justification and sanctification; the problem occurs when this anti-intellectual position is 1) Taught and imposed as a requirement for faith 2) Used as an attempt to convince nonbelievers of the reality of Christ. I also think it can do great damage to followers who have encountered abuse in their lives - for example, teaching the idea that we are worthless sinners - completely wretched and totally depraved AND that God blesses those who love Him AND that your lack of faith is the only reason you cannot understand these opposite viewpoints, rather than the reality of their experience - childhood sexual abuse, for example - God heals faithful followers immediately, right??
In addition, it sets young Christian people up for faith shattering failure when they encounter a nonbeliever who knows how to reason well - I remember when I presented my 'ironclad' understanding of the gospel, which I learned at youth group, as a kid, to my roommate in college who was an atheist; I was taught to be convinced of the indisputable nature of my Christian world view, based on the solid Biblical foundation I received from my church leaders. It only took a couple of hours for Steve to expose at least thirty-five contradictions in my reasoning and bring into question everything I held to be true. I was devastated because I was never taught ideas like 'we simply do not have all the answers' AND 'reason has limitations, which we should not be afraid to acknowledge' AND 'many people have good reasons for believing what they believe'. As painful as it was for me at the time, I gradually realized that God does not need a 'groupie' OR a mindless, 'Yes Man'; instead, He desires me to love AND not be afraid to acknowledge the difference between the reality of my experience and the reality of doctrine AND the limitations of reasoning. Now I choose to return God's love even when it doesn't seem logical and I feel no need to pretend otherwise or defend God or my decision to follow Him.
What I have realized is, cognitive dissidence (the anxiety produced when privately held beliefs do not match real world experience) often results in denial, crazy thoughts and feelings, and simply eats away faith. Over time, people will abandon faith and God in exchange for peace of mind - the relief from cognitive dissidence. Teaching people to deny their real world experience in favor of doctrine will result in an eventual meltdown AND the good news is we do not have to.
These are just some of my thoughts.
Peace