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1. Ignorant/ Misinformed
It is no shame, neither is it unusual, to be misinformed about Mormonism (why should people know about it, after all?) - so long as this ignorance is acknowledged and correction is accepted.
Most often, people are both ignorant and misinformed - having accepted as truth various malicious lies and distortions, or else they are simply confused, and accidentally conflating Mormonism with other religions.
But Mormonism has been around 180 years, and masses of information is freely available - and we know in great detail how Mormonism has worked-out in practice and what Mormons actually do.
So that an informed person could never honestly equate the Mormon concept of God with the head of a pantheon such as Zeus or Jupiter, or the Platonic or Gnostic demiurge, or else a 'godling' (whatever they mean by that) - the facts very simply and obviously refute this equation.
Of course there are similarities - just as there are similarities between men and women, or the Archangel Michael and Satan, or Winston Churchill and David Cameron - but obviously that similarity does not make them the same.
(The proper question to ask, the correct enquiry to make, would be based on the knowledge that the Mormon concept of God was not the same as Zeus, a demiurge or 'godling' - and to try and understand why this was not so.)
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2. Silly
People express opinions about stuff in an unserious way, without their brains being fully-engaged, just to make conversation or to fill-in time, or to provoke a response.
They don't really care much either way.
They are not prepared to pay attention, to concentrate, to follow a line of reasoning.
They are just silly - at least on this subject - and there is really no point in talking with them unless they will first stop being silly (or else it only encourages them in their silliness).
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3. Malicious
Malicious: a.k.a. wicked, evil, anti-Good.
Many people, including many or most Christians and all Leftists and Liberals; are malicious about Mormonism. They hate it, and they enjoy hating it, and they do not want anybody to disturb them in the enjoyment of this hatred.
They will cheerfully spread lies, distortions, false equations, confusions, gross exaggerations... whatever they suppose will cause the most damage to Mormonism.
They say things like that Mormons worship a polytheistic pantheon with God as the Chief; or that Mormons are some kind of Gnostic cultists; or that Mormons have a low view of God such that he is better described as a mere 'godling'.
Other malicious people will then believe what these malicious people say, and so it goes. And since they are motivated by malice, it is impossible to refute such lies - the less evidence for the lies the more sinister is the perceived conspiracy and threat...
Such people have put themselves on the wrong side, on the side of wrong - because they are hate-full; therefore, if they willfully remain on the side of hatred, then they have freely chosen to reject salvation.
(Of course, they can and may repent.)
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