The Korihor Argument: A Missionary's Journey Out of Mormonism

by Joseph Rawlins

For the first edition of The Korihor Argument, author Joe Rawlins will be donating a portion of the sale of each copy of the book to help the children of Peru to a better education. Details can be found at joerawlins.com/press FROM THE KORIHOR “Do you know what I think?” Bishop Lambson asked me. “I think that you never had a testimony.” Remarkable. A whole life of a man written off in a breath. And by a man with whom I had conversed less than half a dozen times. My whole life as a Mormon dismissed with an actual wave of the hand. Now that we have discussed Sons of Perdition in the previous chapter, the logic should seem obvious that Bishop Lambson wanted to spare me of his endorsement of my testimony for fear that I had denied the Holy Ghost and committed the unpardonable sin. Like most Mormons, he probably wants to believe that I was never one of the people who could have been so enlightened as to be eligible for Outer Darkness. But he does not know that to be the case. A better reason for Lambson’s excusing me of ever having fidelity is that it calms his own nerves. He wants the confirmation bias that claims that the only reason that anyone would experience doubts about the Church was because they never attained his knowledge of it or experience with it. That gives him license not to honestly stop and consider the possibility that he is wrong. “Well,” I answered, “you don’t know me and you don’t know my story.” Does anyone? I wondered. Does anyone even care? I not only served a mission for this Church, I had suffered for the cause. I had put my name and my family’s name to protect an organization that told me that it was normal to doubt its authenticity but that faith must drive me to disregard that doubt. It is difficult to describe the pain of my sacrifice being so summarily dismissed by an ecclesiastical leader.

Genres: Religion

576 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 10, 2015

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book hit very close to home. As a former Mormon myself, I can relate very well to the journey the author described, as I have gone through my own transition in that regard. The author is remarkably open about his own journey out of Mormonism (as the subtitle suggests), which is very refreshing I think.

Multiple stories are being told in this book: The author’s own, the interaction of the ’Book of Mormon’s’ characters Korihor and Alma, the story of the beginnings of the Mormon church (and resulting historical and doctrinal inconsistencies) and the scientific story in regard to the origins of life. Rawlins weaves these different and yet connected stories together in a very readable way. Infused in his stories, are the writings and sayings of many brilliant minds such as Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Lawrence Krauss and Neil deGrasse-Tyson to name the most prominent. Together with the author’s own story of journeying from being a believing Mormon to an atheist, it makes for a very interesting and rewarding read. Knowing from my own experience how hard it is (both individually and culturally) to go from being a full blown believer, to becoming an atheist (even though my awakening didn’t come until 10 years after I had returned from my Mormon mission), stories like these always help me realize (even if I know this rationally) that I am not the only one who went through something like this.

Rawlins touches upon many life challenging questions, such as the origins of our morality, what happens after death, the origins of life, to name just a few, and how religion in general, and Mormonism specifically, falls short in providing answers to these questions, however seemingly comfortable the promised rewards appear to be. In all, a book well worth reading for anyone who is at all a little familiar with Mormonism.

[Brett Nordquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could relate to much of this book, especially the parts that covered his LDS mission. As someone who left Mormonism about 3 years ago, I found the stories shared here to be helpful and made me realize there are others who questioned their religion early in life.

[Roger Harmon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring

Double Boring, triple Boring, did not keep me interested. Just simply, not my cup of herbal tea. Hard to get through the first chapter.