I did not always believe in God, Jesus, and the Bible. I had lots of questions and challenged God with them. However, when I had a personal encounter with my own awfulness and turned to Jesus, I found myself on a journey of learning - line upon line. Your last observation is probably true, and head knowledge is not necessarily insight and wisdom. Also, most folks like yourself have had the experiences kind of topsy turvy - believing in someone you had never met - sort of like the Santa Claus experience.