Calvin' Predestination, inexorability and fatalism

Been sitting here thinking of what's going on in the world and, as an atheist, have a view that life is serendipitious in nature.

But do any of you more religious folks - especially those of Catholic/Protestant persuasion - ever think that this panoply we call the MEast is playing itself out to some pre-ordained, inexorable and unavoidable conclusion??

I mean if the great religions of the world are right, there is something headed this way; be it the 1st coming, the 2nd or Armageddon??