Calvinism

I took a church history class in high school.  Although this was only a few years ago, my memory of what I learned was blank.  However, I do remember going over Calvinism and it was because of the idea of predestination.

Basically, predestination is the idea of God setting aside a select few of people who would be saved and the others would not.  Obviously, there is a major error in this belief.  Out of how many number of people are here on earth, only some would be saved.  I can't imagine living and having that in my mind constantly.  Am I chosen to be saved?  If this is true, then it's a waste to have the other people if they are not meant to be saved.  In addition, Jesus' death would be meaningless because He died for everyone.

Weber's response to this should definitely be taken into account.  I absolutely agree that Christian would live an isolated life.  And that is, by no means, the life that God wants us to live.  He put us here to be in a community.  There may be only a few who can function decently by being alone.  But the majority of us need people around us.  We were not meant to face the world alone.

Striving to do good is meaningless because not one human except Jesus is good.  We all are capable of doing evil.  But that is why we have Jesus.  He saved us and although we are not perfect, when we sin, we have the opportunity to experience mercy and forgiveness.

I find this to be a possible reason as to why people who are not Christian are "turned off" by Christians.  If nonbelievers discovered that only certain people would be saved, what's the point of them becoming believers?  And if a believer strives for a life of perfection, they will be rejected in the real world.  A human is not perfect and if they appear so, they are despised.  What a nonbeliever needs to see is a human who strives to do good in the eyes of God but is aware that they are not perfect.  And although they make mistakes, they come to God first and only.