Predestination/Election

[BLanE]

I know that this topic is being discussed elsewhere but I wanted to get more specific about it. I am interested in all ideas but especially those from a Christian perspective. Personally, I have a hard time believing that God would create to send some people to heaven and some to hell. The temptation might be to debate the heaven and hell issue but I would like to stay on Predestination and Election. Calvinists believe that everything is preordained. Our lives, our decisions and our eternal dwelling place. I would like to know why some of you believe as John Calvin (please give scripture to support) and why some of you do not. (also, please give scripture to support) I am trying to come to a rational decision and would like some input. Also, if you do believe in the election process, that some of us have been elected to be God's children, then what separates that belief from the Jehova's Witness belief? Just a number? Thanks

[Cathar1950]

I'm glad that jjg resurrected this topic

It seems to me that no discussion about predestination would be complete without reference to The Special Theory of Relativity.

I think the above link is well worth a read as it contains a neat little diagram that appears to show that the future has "already happened". This of course is a rather controversial finding and much effort has gone into ameliorating the situation, but with varying degrees of success!

I could use some help articulating what I a trying to say so jump in when you want to QED.
I have problems with the idea that the future has "already happened" unless the future is an abstraction. I am a non-dualist. I think that everything including the possible existence of God or gods is made of the same stuff and could be either spirit (what ever you want to call it), matter, subatomic particles, strings, QEDism(from another thread and I liked the idea) or whatever and that everything is made up of this stuff in different relationships, complexities and organizations. Time, space and matter are abstracted relationships of experience.
The past abstracted is now the present experience that somehow does contains something that was not included in the past experience while the future, another abstraction is anticipation as well as habits. Everything experiences in its own time where relativity would still be valid. In my scheme the future has not happened because it has yet to be experienced.
I could use some help here because I think I am on to something that my brother and I are always arguing about. I say God does not no the future because it is an abstraction or projection and has not been experienced.
For something to exist it must be experienced or felt to misquote Niels Boer.
When God (provided there is a God that can even be comprehend) says something about the future it is because he see it like we see the sun coming up in the morning and we expect it or he causes it to happen. As a funny side note maybe this is why when God says the king of kings, Nebuchadnezzar will completely destroy Tyre and got it wrong to make up for it he promised Egypt as a consolation prize that was also wrong about its future. (Ezekiel 26:3)