[D-fendr]

Calvinist superstition holds that it was divine choice, but it all comes down to luck on an individual level

And what do we know of the "divine" who is doing the choosing? He's wrathful and engaged in a blood feud with Adam's descendants. His "mercy" consists of not torturing some. And, according to the theology, his picking has nothing whatsoever to do with those picked, but only with his own pleasure..

A step back toward a pagan god.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

You're describing the god of Rome who sends some men to hell if they they haven't received a priest's pat on the head.

Christians believe in mercy.

"But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." -- Titus 3:4-7

[kosta50]

And what do we know of the "divine" who is doing the choosing? He's wrathful and engaged in a blood feud with Adam's descendants. His "mercy" consists of not torturing some. And, according to the theology, his picking has nothing whatsoever to do with those picked, but only with his own pleasure. A step back toward a pagan god

Yup, and he (omnipotent and omniscient deity) also allowed Satan to hijack his most beloved creation right under his nose so he can become man (a few thousand years later, just to be fashionably late), undergo self-imposed torture, and die only so he could pay Satan in his own blood as ransom to get his believed prized creation back (this is the theology of a Protestant I received not so long ago). Pagan to the core.