Minecraft 1.8 will run w/out forge. However when the launcher is switched to Forge and play is pressed, the launcher closes, Minecraft opens to a black screen then quickly closes and brings up the launcher with the following error report:
I have no mods in the mod folder as of yet, as I was simply trying to get Forge working first. All threads I have found have involved mod conflicts or solutions I am not seeing the files for, such as the config-->splash. I do not have a config file anywhere that I can find...
EDIT: Manually copied in the spoiler...