Verse 42:23 and how to interpret it, disciplines of interpreting Quran.

[pocaracas]

Note that no actual "divine appointment" is required to get people to follow; no "divine appointment" is required to write nicely sounding behavioral rules for a society; no "divine appointment" is required for people to perpetuate the belief that the person(s) is(are) "divinely appointed".

A divine appointment and a lack of such divine appointment are formally equivalent to their followers. All they need is to believe that there was a divine appointment.

What you say is essentially true. And I understand that a lot of people claiming to be Prophets or Avatars or Shamans were liars and didn't have proof.

If by "a lot", you mean "everyone", then we are in agreement.

The essential thing is the truth has proofs and firm evidence. 

That it is a religion is evidence enough that the underlying "truth" is false, but believed as true.
A real god would require no religion, no book, no prophet, no nothing but itself.

That's why I keep using the same question: What does god need with a starship?

And while false religions would want you to follow their leaders without proof and clear insight,  the true religion should condemn believing or following without knowledge and challenge all people to bring their proofs if they are truthful.

Any religion should condemn all others as false. DUH!
Look at the first commandment that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai:
- You shall have no other gods before Me.

A person trying to get others to follow a path without proofs and happens to follow the true religion is making people think the religion has no firm proofs.

And what does God have to with his guides (starship), that is big theme in Quran. Again you act like it didn't discuss this.

I have no interest whatsoever in reading the Quran and finding whatever excuses it makes for the patent absence of a god and the following of, yet again, another man, another prophet, another "starship".

It did. And indeed there are many false Prophets and many false leaders, but this doesn't negate that God can prove his guidance and manifest it in various degrees.

Usually the manifestation of guidance is not the issue, but, people apathy to know the truth and turn away from proofs by their sheer desires, is the problem.

People want to know, but are required, by all religions, to believe.
As long as belief is a requirement, the religion's claims are to be considered false.

And what God intends with the chosen ones and why he brings them in form of chosen families is the heart of the discussion of the Quran. And how he proves them and how their path is distinct, and how they themselves essentially are the proofs, is a good discussion.

Why don't you show me you understand at least somewhat of the gist of the Quran pertaining to these questions so we can have an actually discussion on knowledge as opposed to all this ignorance.

I have never seen much of the Quran... just like I've never seen much of the bible, nor any other holy text.
The important bits presuppose the existence of a god and are thus irrelevant to ascertaining whether a god exists at all.
The discussions on the chosen ones are, again, just excuses for the patent lack of any god, and how a few take advantage of that through philosophy.