This is the Argument from Confusion (AC).
(A) If the God of evangelical Christianity were to exist, then:
- He would love all Christians and want a personal relationship with them.
- People would need to have G-beliefs (among other things) in order to have the sort of relationship with God that he would want them to have.
(C) Thus, if the God of evangelical Christianity were to exist, then he would probably prevent Christians from becoming confused or conflicted about matters that are the subject of G-beliefs.
(D) But some Christians are confused about such matters.
(E) And many Christians disagree with one another about such matters.
(F) Therefore [from D & E], Christians have not been prevented from becoming confused or conflicted about matters that are the subject of G-beliefs.
(G) Hence [from C & F], probably the God of evangelical Christianity does not exist.
The Argument from Biblical Defects (ABD) is as follows:
(A) If the God of evangelical Christianity were to exist, then the Bible would be God's only written revelation.
(B) Thus, if that deity were to exist, then he would probably see to it that the Bible is perfectly clear and authoritative, and lack the appearance of merely human authorship.
(C) Some facts about the Bible are the following:
- It contradicts itself or is very unclear in many places.
- It contains factual errors, including unfulfilled prophecies.
- It contains ethical defects (such as God committing or ordering atrocities).
- It contains interpolations (later insertions to the text).
- Different copies of the same biblical manuscripts say conflicting things.
- The biblical canon involves disputes and is apparently arbitrary.
- There is no objective procedure for settling any of the various disputes, especially since the original manuscripts of the Bible have been lost and there has been no declaration from God that would help resolve any of the disputes.
(E) Hence [from B & D], probably the God of evangelical Christianity does not exist.
What do you guys think of these arguments? I suspect that Catholics (who comprise the majority of professed Christians in the world) would recognize these arguments, not as arguments against Christianity or theism, but against Protestantism.