>>> Can [be] encountered empirically? How exactly do you mean that? Do you mean in this lifetime?
>
>Of course. That is why Christianity is called a walk of faith.


I am not religious (raised Protestant, strayed) but have always liked the concept of faith. The fervent belief in things one cannot prove. My wife was Catholic and our daughters have been raised Catholic -- in fact, "raised in the Catholic faith" is the way it's put -- and I have been to my share of masses. My favorite part is always when the priest says "Let us celebrate the mystery of faith." You really can't beat Catholicism for imagery and icons.

In one of Graham Greene's late novels, "Monsignor Quixote", the eponymous priest tells Sancho (of course) that he had the most horrible dream the night before. He says in his dream Jesus Christ returned to earth and proved incontrovertibly that he was who he said he was, the savior / god who Christians have held faith in ever since. The monsignor says this horrified him because he no longer felt a purpose in life.

(FWIW, Greene was a converted Catholic).