There are so many self-defeating beliefs in the Book of Mormon but I nominate King Benjamin and his horrible death bed admonitions. What do you think are the most damaging beliefs in the BOM?

Probably nephi Killing laban.
I heard a lot about that from Nomos. I had never really taken into consideration the fact the the Lawrd told nephi to kill him and that it was breaking one of the 10 commandments. It's ok though because gawd said to. And Gawd can change his mind at any time.

Serial killers would love this story, because the little voice in his head told him to do it

This really is a bizzare story when you actually look at it.

Here we have Laban, lying passed out in the street. Nephi (a man who Laban had just attempted to have killed earlier in the day) comes across him. Nephi needs some (yet to be compiled) scriptures that Laban (somehow already) possesses, so he gets the idea to impersonate Laban and just steal the scriptures. (Breaking two of the 10 commandments in the process: thou shalt not lie, and thou shalt not steal)

Still, its for a good cause, he tells himself. Now, how to pull off the impersonation. Well, Nephi needs Laban's clothes and his sword. Makes sense, so he'll just grab them and leave Laban naked in some back alley while Nephi goes off to heroically plunder his household, right? NOPE! He first kills Laban, for absolutely no reason! (Unless he just really wanted to break a third commandment to go along with the other two)

Laban was passed out drunk in the ally! All Nephi needed were his cloths! Why on earth would he murder the guy?? That actually seems counterproductive to his end goal of stealing the scriptures, since now Laban's clothes would be covered in blood. Plus, the authorities probably wouldn't care too much if you just stole some guy's book, but if you murder a prominent nobleman in the nation's capitol city, somebody's probably going to come after you. So its not just an immoral move, its also unnecessary and counterproductive. Nephi: Book of Mormon Hero.

Since it's been... oh geez, at least 15 if not more years since I last read the Book of Mormon... can you remind me what King Benjamin's dead bed admonitions were? :)

In my humble opinion is horribly destructive. The speech is one of the most quoted in all of Mormondumb, with Mosiah 2:17 being the most quoted that I can remember. I am not really inclined to read it again but the gist of his address is: You are not worthy, you are dust, dust is better than you because it obeys. You suck so bad that the only way you will be saved is if I murder my boy. You suck so bad that even if you try your hardest you will never be good enough. You suck so bad that I can't even look at you without retching. That's not word for word mind you but it is the message.

Ah yes, I do remember that. And yes, I agree with you but that isn't just from Mormonism: Christianity also thinks that way about people.

As the old saying goes, sin is an invention of man so they can sell you an imaginary cure.

Someone posted recently how there was an old Methodist preacher during Smith's time who gave an almost identical speech.

JS said he gave a fire and brimstone sermon to the people in one town during Zion's camp! The people asked what he was about so he gave them the sermon. This in the JS's History of the Church.

THe worst beliefs of the BoM begin on page 1 and end at the final page of the book.

7++

What did it for me was chapter 12 of 3rd nephi.
Chapter 11 is supposed to be the pinnacle of the BoM when Jesus comes and visits the america's... the very next chapter is copied out the bible exactly word for word...

The bible is translated incorrectly unless I need to copy it for the most important part of the BoM, then it's groovy - Joseph Smith.

It just means that Christ was perfect in all things, except impromptu speaking. JK.

I never thought of that. lol "Jesus knows all of you by name but don't ask him too quickly..."

This is Moroni's promise. Problems with it: 1) The idea that you can KNOW the truth of all things, by your feelings and 2) the idea that this is dependent on your sincerity and obedience (so if you don't get the "correct" answer, it's because you are a bad person.