I’m atheist but not dogmatically so — I harbor doubts, I might turn out to be wrong, etc.

I’m not sure why what I’m talking about isn’t revelation proper, or why theological revelation should merit a whole separate category from ordinary human self-revelation. “Call me Ishmael,” says the narrator of a book I once read. Whose revelation is this: the narrator’s, or the guy who wrote the narrator’s part?

You say that God revealed himself climactically and materially in Jesus Christ. But that’s not self-evident, is it? Even in the Gospel texts Jesus remains rather ambiguous about it, and of course after two thousand years it’s hard to be certain whether Jesus’s recorded words and deeds are more like Ishmael’s. If I say that I’m John Doyle you might believe me, but what if I said that I’m God incarnate?

Yes, I understand the called, chosen, predestined idea, James, and I’ve read the texts you cite. So now I’ve heard and I don’t believe — or rather, I believe something other than what Paul preaches — for what I regard as plausible if not airtight reasons. You acknowledge that believing as presented by Calvin is itself a gift, unmerited, unthought through human reason, the evidence unperceived through human empirical methods. I don’t believe that either — or rather, I believe that reason and empiricism are useful if fallible tools for finding things out.

I can talk with you via internet, I could conceivably meet you face to face: these are the ordinary means at any human’s disposal to get to know someone else. Why should overriding these ordinary human means of knowing people be regarded not only as good but as essential to salvation? And if this sort of non-rational, non-empirical knowledge is essential but not readily available to humans outside of grace, why not bestow that grace on everyone? And why should employing ordinary human, rational, empirical criteria for evaluating the case for God be regarded as unrighteousness and the pursuit of lies? Is it unrighteous lying for you and I to think that we’re getting to know more about one another through exchanges like this one?