Why?...

...Some Serious and Some Not So Serious Random Food-for-Thought Questions on a Variety of Topics, Including Protestantism, Islam, Sexuality, Science, and even Some Scoring Peculiarities in Golf and Tennis.

Protestants and Protestantism

Why do many Protestants insist on the Bible Alone as the Rule of Faith, yet they always have preachers or ministers explaining what the bible means based on their interpretation?  Shouldn’t their Rule of Faith really be the Bible plus whatever protestant preachers or ministers say it means?

Why do many Protestants have numerous denominations all claiming inspiration by the Holy Spirit, yet they teach many fundamentally different things among them?  Don’t they just make the Holy Spirit in their own image as a relativist inspiring contradictory messages?

Why do many Protestants insist that Paul’s divinely inspired declaration about salvation by faith is to be taken literally and given extra weight while at the same time James’ divinely inspired declaration that faith without works is dead is to not be taken literally or given as much weight as Paul’s declaration?  Shouldn’t both divinely inspired statements be afforded equal weight and combined into a more complete understanding?

Why do many Protestants declare themselves to be once saved always saved since such a declaration or teaching is nowhere found in the Bible?  Are they not foolishly dictating to the Lord what His final judgment will be?

Islam and Muslims

Why does Islam, alone among all other religions or faith communities, preach a violent jihad that includes the murdering of non-believers in Islam?

Why does Islam claim that Jesus Christ was never crucified and rose from the dead, and that all Christians have been deceived by God into believing that he was?

Why do many Muslims irrationally insist that Christians do not tell the truth about what the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is, and that Christians actually believe God the Father had a sexual relationship with Mary to produce Jesus Christ?

Why do Muslims insist that Mecca was always the primary holy city of Islam when it is only first mentioned on record as a city some 100 years after Muhammad’s claimed death in 632, and it doesn’t show up on any maps until an additional 100 or so years later?

Why did it take some 200 years after the claimed death of Muhammad before a biography claiming to be that of Muhammad was actually written for the first time, yet it is not based on any eyewitness accounts from the time of or even shortly after Muhammad?

Why do Muslims insist that there is only one Quran when more than 30 varieties with different doctrines have been discovered by historians?

Sexuality

Why do some people insist that being homosexual or heterosexual is not freely chosen by individuals, but gender (properly understood as a synonym for biological sex) is freely chosen?

Science

Why do some people claim that they follow science except when it comes to the science of when human life begins and develops in the womb?

Why do some atheists insist that the universe always existed, yet they fail to admit that if this were truly the case, then, based on the number of stars spread throughout the galaxies, a thermodynamic equilibrium involving the light and heat from the stars would have already been reached, and what we observe now with a night sky and a day sky would not be possible even with the ongoing expansion of the universe?

Golf

Why is it that in the game of golf, professional players must still sign their own scorecards, and if an error is found in the scoring of a signed card, then despite what the player actually shoots on the course, he or she is penalized for a mathematical discrepancy even if it is completely unintentional?  Why not have scoring officials keep score throughout a round as is done in almost all other sports, and thereby end the unjust penalizing of players if they make an error that has nothing to do with how they actually performed on the course?

Why is 2 under par called an eagle while 3 under par is called a double eagle and official statistics include such references?  Wouldn’t you think that the game’s governing bodies (who still arrogantly insist on imposing penalties for honest errors on a scorecard as mentioned above) would recognize that a double eagle would actually be 4 under par or double the 2 under par eagle score?  3 under par would more accurately be referred to as a triple birdie, or another bird-related name can be chosen if so desired.

Of course, a real double eagle could only be the result of a hole-in-one on a par 5 hole (if this were to occur, the governing bodies would likely extend their erroneous understanding by calling it a triple eagle), and such a score is nearly impossible except for an extremely rare chance on a course under very high wind conditions, favorable ground conditions, and many other extreme rarities all coming together at the same time so that a struck golf ball could travel over 500 yards to reach and go into the par 5 hole. 

Tennis

Why is it that the first 2 points won by either player or both players in a regular tennis game are scored as 15 points each, but a third point won only adds 10 points even though it actually counts just as much as the first 2 points in pursuit of winning a game? :-(