Sorry it took so long to reply.
1) I wasn't stating that I believed in free will, I was stating that we have free will. If you can define it well enough, I can show how we have it. There are the John Stuart Mill followers of what freedom and free will is, which dovetails nicely with common beliefs, but I think of it more like Frithjof Bergmann (On Being Free), but to understand that took me an entire semester. :*) It is no small task to actually define it, but to actually agree on a definition is extremely difficult.
2) My basic premise is that even though they are separate entities, the body and soul are still connected in a way that makes you what you are - of course they can still affect each other. However, I am not going to sit in judgment on someone who freely gives up their ability to inhibit their own actions. I can't tell you whether they will be damned for all eternity. That is not my place, judgment belongs to a higher power. Then the myriad of questions come up about sin, eternal damnation, heaven, and the relation to your soul, but it doesn't change two things. 1) I think therefore I am implies quite a bit about the existence of you outside of any bodily form. Do your thoughts have mass, volume, etc. - I do not think so - it is outside of the physical, which is where people start calling it your soul, and 2) Nowhere does it say that we are endowed with the ability to determine whether God, or any higher power would forgive someone in those mentioned circumstances. We think it has to do with intent, and the actual knowledge that you are turning way from that higher power, but I wouldn't presume to know how God would judge that, in the same way that I can't see your soul, or what is inside it.
4) Faith is a belief that something represents the truth, but you can't physically prove it. I realize this is a basic Webster definition, but the key part is "belief". You can't get away from this. Jesus lived, existed as man, and then died. These would seem to be known facts, although we can argue all day about these "facts". The belief part is that He rose from the dead. In addition, many Christians believe they know why He died and rose from the dead, based on the belief of what is written of His word in the New Testament.
3/5) Your comparison falls a little short - it is certainly much more than just wanting to believe. Certainly part of that belief in existence comes from the argument by design, the intricate nature of the universe had to have a Designer, but it may be way too much for this discussion right now. I can think about a good way to describe it and post at a later time.
Anyway those are my answers such as they are.
