A common tactic used by those who are trying to destroy faith is called a “straw man” argument. This is done by setting up a false image—a straw man—of the truth and then attacking the false image in order to convince others the true image is false. A simple example of this is a child accusing parents who won’t let him play until he gets his work done of not wanting him to have any fun. This is faulty reasoning, but it is often used to deceive others.
Sometimes others claim that Latter-day Saints believe something that we don’t believe. They claim that the false belief is false and then show that it is false. It has nothing to do with what we really believe but is an attempt to make us seem to be in error. Korihor did this to Giddonah: “This argument is called a straw man. That is, he attributed to Giddonah something that Giddonah does not believe—the idea that children inherit guilt through Adam’s transgression. Korihor knows that he cannot fight truth fairly and come off victorious, so he attributes bad doctrine to Giddonah, a straw man to which he can give a good verbal licking” (Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet, Sustaining and Defending the Faith [1985], 90).