I've been compared to him since I was a teenager. In the Orem High Seminary for just asking too many questions in the 80s I was compared to Korihor by the Seminary Principal.
I've been compared to Korihor several times since then.
I've never been bothered by their comparison just their implications. I've always found Korihor fascinating because he has good arguments and yet he is a bad guy in the Book of Mormon.
What upsets me about the comparison is the guilt by association.
I'm a faithful husband and a father who provides. I'm not doing anything illegal and I'm not going to start a sex cult around myself.
But in their economies of scale these people grab the potential atheism (Korihor believed in The Devil) and make the comparison.
Why? Compare me to someone like Nietzche for Pete's sake so I can be impressed with their choice of demons.
I've been compared to Korihor before. Of course, it's a poor comparison because Korihor admitted he always knew there was a God and was later struck dumb (or so the story goes). Neither of these things has happened to me.
So to answer your question- no, it does not bother me. It just makes me realize how little of the BofM some TBMs really know.
I challenge any "priesthood holder" to have me stricken deaf and dumb, just like Korihor. And you don't get to use stupid tricks like poison or punching me in the face. Use your priesthood to do it, just like Alma did.
From the bible by some baptists once at my door when I politely told them I am atheist. They also informed me he wanted to kill Christians. I just told them I didnt want to kill any Christians, yet, but that idea could be revisited if they trespassed on my property to tell me how wicked I am again.
I never rated a comparison to any bom characters that I remember. Probably had something to do with owning a vagina. I'm sure there are female characters in the bom but I never heard a story about any.
Korihor is terrible. Just a caricature of atheists. He's like the "atheist professor" trope that people like to put in urban legends (or that terrible looking movie with kevin sorbo that I keep seeing previews for, "god's not dead"). Some people just can't wrap their minds around the idea that "atheists don't believe in god" so they decide all atheists must actually super secretly still believe in a god but, sin or something. Those sinners.
Out of all of the characters in the BoM, the people like Korihor are now my favorite. They still aren't great characters, but they are the closest to having some level of truth out of all of the people in the BoM.
He makes only the tritest arguments about god, which serves to inoculate BoM believers to ambient reasoning...but then the ah-ha gotcha...he's actually a LIAR who was visited by an evil angel and taught what to say afterall...so hes not even an atheist! So mormons use him on us in two ways...first they dismiss his lame argument as if it were ours, then they dismiss him/us as if we were just knowing liars anyway. Im personally insulted by being compared to Korihor because hes a feable strawman for atheist reasoning, which ACTUALLY tramples religion. Im not a show-me-proof atheist. I dont disbelieve because its inconvenient to me and I want carnal indulgences. I disbelieve in religion for positive not negative reasons...because its dead wrong, abusive, fallacious, a con, a trick, a scam...not because theres simply not enough hard proof. If the Mormon god appreared to me id call him a misogynistic genocidal narcissistic maniac to his fake-white-bearded face. Same as if an angel showed me the gold plates...they still contain morally/ethical falsehoods...gold, platinum, or aluminum.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2013 06:28PM by amos2.
amos2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Im personally insulted by being compared to > Korihor because hes a feable strawman for atheist > reasoning, which ACTUALLY tramples religion.
Excellent point. Maybe I like him because he a scarecrow like one from The Wizard of Oz. Now if he only had a brain, he would be even better. He made me want to find someone not made of straw and had a brain to counter their stupid guilt by association since I obviously didn't want to run over old Korihor like they enjoy doing.
Funny though, Joseph Smith started a cult around himself and was into adulterous sexual relationships.
Hey Pagag...I did time in orem high seminary in the 80's too...what a joke :D
That reminded me of a funny thing that happened to me as an exmormon, kinda oppisite of being called Korihor, I was at a wedding reception with my ultra TBM parents and "Brother" Hall came up to me and told me I was one of his best students ever LOL ( it was probably a lie) but it sure made things awkward for my parents ha ha....
As far as being called korihor, you must have been pretty cool!!!
smithscars Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > As far as being called korihor, you must have been > pretty cool!!!
I guess if I hadn't been totally anti-social I might have been. I was social but in a "I hate everyone who thinks they are normal" way.
The student body president (the pot smoking killed a lot of memories) who I forgot his name was one of the people I detested. He was like class clown/used car salesman.
Also, a lot of the Orem High "Tigress" cheerleaders were having sex with their football team boyfriends and yet trying to be all seminary "cool" goody goody cry when you bear your testimony.
I dropped out of Orem High twice. Junior and Senior year. I graduated from Alpine Adult High School to meet the requirement for a diploma to serve a misson.
I loved it when Elder Holland struck the the BBC reporter dumb who was call calling out Mormonism and book of Abraham -- This modern day Korihor sure got what was coming to him.