Ahh, Korihor. So when I was first seriously looking into atheist material (after several years of agnosticism), I was living with my mom and she invited the Missionaries over for dinner. Their spiritual message was one of the tests of faith in the Book of Mormon, and my response was, wait a second, that “test” doesn’t actually test any theological claims. Even if the test came back 100% positive, it actually says nothing about the existence of god or the validity of christian repentance.
The “elders” response was to ask me to read the story of korihor then we could discuss that in a week. Well… I was also reading Thomas Paine’s “The Age of Reason” at the same time. The only thing I could think when reading the Story of Korihor was, “Man, Korihor sounds an awful lot like a turn of the 19th century deist/agnostic/atheist.” I told the elders that reading the story of Korihor strengthened my testimony that the Book of Mormon was written in the 19th century and was not in any way historical.
Good stuff…very funny.
I think the confusion of the role of Chief Judge and “Governor” (Really? They had governors back then?) stems from Joe Smith’s misunderstanding of what judges in the Book of Judges were. They weren’t judges in the legal sense, but judges in the biblical sense–that is, tribal chieftains. About the only adjudication ever mentioned was from the prophetess Deborah, which, because of her gender, makes for an interesting story. (See wikipedia’s entry of The Book of Judges.)
However, this is all made moot since Alma played both the role of judge and prosecutor. The unnamed Chief Judge and Governor was silent throughout the entire proceeding. Because he never said a damn thing, I suspect he was Clarence Thomas.
–Paul Avery (Please consider this for public use.)
I had to ask my TBM family “why Korihor should be punished when he thought the angle was from god?” the response is ” if you shake the angles hand and it feels empty its a demon or the devil so korihor knew the whole time” I asked were in the scripture this was but they didn’t know.
so remember shake the devils hand if it feels dead hes a demon if it feels good or real its a angle from god. Let me go put on some sacred underwear and bare a testimony or two.
I don’t believe that Korihor recanted, that’s just propaganda. He had an irrefutable argument, and they couldn’t combat it any way but taking his voice. I’ll bet they cut out his tongue, claimed God did it to make him “dumb”, and claimed that he recanted in the end.
Alma is just an unreliable narrator in this section.
I’ve spent the past forty-two episodes waiting for this one, and it was well worth the wait. Korihor makes for a huge “WTF” moment when you first read the Book of Mormon without the “everything is true”-tinted glasses. Like you said, even if you believe that these events literally happened, it makes no sense why he had to be punished.
October 8, 2014 at 10:58 pm
Whenever I hear Korihor, I think of this Indian place down the street named Kohinoor. Food so delicious it feels sinful eating it.
October 9, 2014 at 3:57 pm
Hi, fellow Oremite
October 10, 2014 at 5:38 am
Sup.
October 9, 2014 at 5:22 am
I have been waiting for this episode for a very long time. One of the first things I noticed when I started doubting Church was Korihor was right!
October 9, 2014 at 4:47 pm
Man I love the story of Korihor. I highly recommend the essay “In Korihor’s Defense.”
http://idafab.tripod.com/lund002.html
October 9, 2014 at 5:56 pm
The music was great! Great episode!
October 9, 2014 at 10:15 pm
Ahh, Korihor. So when I was first seriously looking into atheist material (after several years of agnosticism), I was living with my mom and she invited the Missionaries over for dinner. Their spiritual message was one of the tests of faith in the Book of Mormon, and my response was, wait a second, that “test” doesn’t actually test any theological claims. Even if the test came back 100% positive, it actually says nothing about the existence of god or the validity of christian repentance.
The “elders” response was to ask me to read the story of korihor then we could discuss that in a week. Well… I was also reading Thomas Paine’s “The Age of Reason” at the same time. The only thing I could think when reading the Story of Korihor was, “Man, Korihor sounds an awful lot like a turn of the 19th century deist/agnostic/atheist.” I told the elders that reading the story of Korihor strengthened my testimony that the Book of Mormon was written in the 19th century and was not in any way historical.
October 12, 2014 at 4:54 pm
Good stuff…very funny.
I think the confusion of the role of Chief Judge and “Governor” (Really? They had governors back then?) stems from Joe Smith’s misunderstanding of what judges in the Book of Judges were. They weren’t judges in the legal sense, but judges in the biblical sense–that is, tribal chieftains. About the only adjudication ever mentioned was from the prophetess Deborah, which, because of her gender, makes for an interesting story. (See wikipedia’s entry of The Book of Judges.)
However, this is all made moot since Alma played both the role of judge and prosecutor. The unnamed Chief Judge and Governor was silent throughout the entire proceeding. Because he never said a damn thing, I suspect he was Clarence Thomas.
–Paul Avery (Please consider this for public use.)
October 21, 2014 at 3:19 pm
To be totally lighthearted, whenever I hear “Ammonites” I absolutely think of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonoidea
November 10, 2014 at 2:59 am
I had to ask my TBM family “why Korihor should be punished when he thought the angle was from god?” the response is ” if you shake the angles hand and it feels empty its a demon or the devil so korihor knew the whole time” I asked were in the scripture this was but they didn’t know.
so remember shake the devils hand if it feels dead hes a demon if it feels good or real its a angle from god. Let me go put on some sacred underwear and bare a testimony or two.
Love the podcast you rock david!
November 10, 2014 at 3:00 am
angel even. those damn angles.
December 23, 2014 at 5:33 pm
Dustin, the scripture your TBM family should have cited was Doctrine & Covenants 129. https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/129?lang=eng
December 16, 2014 at 12:13 am
I don’t believe that Korihor recanted, that’s just propaganda. He had an irrefutable argument, and they couldn’t combat it any way but taking his voice. I’ll bet they cut out his tongue, claimed God did it to make him “dumb”, and claimed that he recanted in the end.
Alma is just an unreliable narrator in this section.
January 28, 2015 at 5:53 pm
I especially enjoyed the background music! Please do more of this!
July 25, 2015 at 5:53 am
I’ve been trying to catch up, and I just got to this part in the podcast. I just had to said, the background music was awesome. I love it.
January 18, 2016 at 8:27 pm
I’ve spent the past forty-two episodes waiting for this one, and it was well worth the wait. Korihor makes for a huge “WTF” moment when you first read the Book of Mormon without the “everything is true”-tinted glasses. Like you said, even if you believe that these events literally happened, it makes no sense why he had to be punished.