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How are they "red herring arguments? They are questions - if you had good answers, you wouldn't dismiss them with such smug aplomb....Christ gave us a direct line to God the Father and so many still think they need other flawed mortals to be able to save their eternal souls......even when faced with the absolute proof that those 'doing the saving" are every bit as flawed as those they supposedly save. What happened to the concept of men of the cloth being teachers instead of purveyors of "miracles"? I was baptized into the Catholic Church, had First Communion and was Confirmed.....when I started reading the Bible, I felt compelled to be baptized as a sign that I, as an aware adult, wished to publicly give myself to Christ, as the initial rite had nothing to do with my salvation.

I find it ironic that, after discovering that there are many homosexual/pedophile priests (guilty of two of the sins that so many Catholics howl are the worst of the worst), deciding that others can or can't receive communion, and supposedly transforming the wafers and wine into the body and blood, that folks don't wonder if somehow the rite wasn't tainted....while again howling how that which cannot be desecrated or defiled is somehow desecrated if someone defaces a statue of the Virgin Mary. No human can desecrate or defile The Father, Son or Holy Spirit.

I'm reminded of Peter's dream when he declared he woildn't eat what was unclean and was told that what the Lord had declared as clean, was clean......Peter's reticence was because his religion told him other than what God had proclaimed.....most religions have many areas where they do the same - all to keep the pharisees in a position of power via false mystique.

So, either ignore the questions or answer them, don't call them red herrings because you don't like them but cannot answer them.

Christ gave us a direct line to God the Father

Christ, through his apostles, also set up a hierarchical church with a real, visible organization. If you don't believe that, I suggest you read the later Pauline epistles (what do you think "appointed overseers in every city" means?) and then read the writings of the very earliest church fathers, many of whom knew the Apostles personally.

Your "direct line to God the Father" doesn't excuse you from following the way that Christ actually prescribed, which leads directly to the organization that Christ himself set up. "If you love me, keep my commandments" comes into play here.