Difference between revisions of "Book of Mormon/DNA evidence"

()
(part of content conslidation and simplification project)
 
(26 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Articles FAIR copyright}} {{Articles Header 1}} {{Articles Header 2}} {{Articles Header 3}} {{Articles Header 4}} {{Articles Header 5}} {{Articles Header 6}} {{Articles Header 7}} {{Articles Header 8}} {{Articles Header 9}} {{Articles Header 10}}
+
#REDIRECT[[DNA and the Book of Mormon]]
{{Resource Title|The Book of Mormon and DNA evidence}}
 
{{summary}}
 
<onlyinclude>
 
{{SummaryHeader
 
|link=Book of Mormon/DNA evidence
 
|subject=The Book of Mormon and DNA evidence
 
|summary=
 
}}
 
===== =====
 
{{SummaryItem
 
|link=Book of Mormon/DNA evidence/Responding to critical claims
 
|subject=Responding to critical claims regarding DNA evidence and the Book of Mormon
 
|summary=DNA samples taken from modern Native Americans do not match the DNA of modern inhabitants of the Middle East. Critics argue that this means the Book of Mormon's claim that Native Americans are descended from Lehi must be false, and therefore the Book of Mormon is not an ancient record as Joseph Smith claimed.
 
}}
 
===== =====
 
{{SummaryItem
 
|link=Book of Mormon/DNA evidence/Geography issues
 
|subject=Geography issues
 
|summary=A variety of geographic models have been suggested for the Book of Mormon.  Some geographic models introduce other difficulties for the DNA attacks.
 
|sublink1=Question: What are the geographical assumptions upon which DNA-based attacks on the Book of Mormon are based?
 
}}
 
 
 
===== =====
 
{{SummaryItem
 
|link=Book of Mormon/DNA evidence/Geography issues/Haplogroup X2a
 
|subject=Haplogroup X2a
 
|summary=Some have tried to use a genetic group called haplotype X2a as proof of the Book of Mormon, but the science at present cannot support this.
 
|sublink1= Question: Is DNA Haplogroup X2a proof that the Book of Mormon fits best in a geography located in the Great Lakes region?
 
}}
 
 
 
===== =====
 
{{SummaryItem
 
|link=Book of Mormon/DNA evidence/Ancestry of Lehi
 
|subject=What is Lehi's ancestry?
 
|summary=Genetic attacks on the Book of Mormon focus on the fact that Amerindian DNA seems closest to Asian DNA, and not DNA from "the Middle East" or "Jewish" DNA.  However, this attack ignores several key points, among which is the fact that the Book of Mormon states that Lehi and his family are clearly ''not'' Jews.
 
|sublink1=Question: What is Lehi's ancestry?
 
}}
 
 
 
===== =====
 
{{SummaryItem
 
|link=Book of Mormon/DNA evidence/Identification of "Jewish" or "Middle Eastern" DNA
 
|subject=How does one identify "Jewish" or "Middle Eastern" DNA?
 
|summary=Identifying DNA criteria for Manasseh and Ephraim may always be beyond our reach. But, even identifying markers for Jews—a group that has remained relatively cohesive and refrained from intermarriage with others more than most groups—is an extraordinarily difficult undertaking.
 
|sublink1=Question: How does one identify "Jewish" or "Middle Eastern" DNA?
 
}}
 
 
 
===== =====
 
{{SummaryItem
 
|link=Book of Mormon/DNA evidence/Identification of "Jewish" or "Middle Eastern" DNA/Lemba and Cohen modal haplotype
 
|subject=Lemba and Cohen modal haplotype
 
|summary=Some critics use the "Lemba" as an example of a group proven to be Jewish via DNA testing as proof that such a testing should be possible for Book of Mormon people. But, this example is misleading. The Lemba were identified as Jewish because of a marker called the "Cohen modal haplotype." This marker is carried by about half of those who claim descent from Aaron, Moses' brother, and only 2-3% of other Jews. But, the Book of Mormon does not suggest—and in fact seems to exclude—the idea that Levites (the priestly family of Aaron) were among the Lehi party.
 
|sublink1=Question: Can the Lemba and Cohen modal haplotype be used to either prove or disprove the Book of Mormon?
 
}}
 
 
 
===== =====
 
{{SummaryItem
 
|link=Book of Mormon/DNA evidence/Methods of testing
 
|subject=What methods of DNA tests are available?
 
|summary=DNA issues can be complex for the non-specialist (especially those who were in high school more than twenty years ago, before much of the modern understanding of DNA was available). In this article we review the methods of DNA testing that are available, along with their strengths and their limitations.
 
|sublink1=Question: What methods of DNA tests are available?
 
}}
 
 
 
===== =====
 
{{SummaryItem
 
|link=Book of Mormon/DNA evidence/New World death rate after European contact
 
|subject=New World death rate after European contact
 
|summary=Approximately ninety percent of the Amerindian population died out following contact with the Europeans; most of this was due to infectious disease against which they had no defense.<ref>Suzanne Austin Alchon, 'A Pest in the Land: New World Epidemics in a Global Perspective,' Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, c2003. </ref> Since different genes likely provide different resistances to infectious disease, it may be that eliminating 90% of the pre-contact gene pool has significantly distorted the true genetic picture of Lehi's descendants.
 
|sublink1=Question: What effect did the 90% death rate in the New World after European contact have on genetics and its relationship to the Book of Mormon?
 
}}
 
 
 
===== =====
 
{{SummaryItem
 
|link=Book of Mormon/DNA evidence/Jaredite influence
 
|subject=Jaredite influence
 
|summary=Critics often over-look the Jaredites, and assume (as in the hemispheric models that the Jaredites can have contributed nothing of consequence to the Lehite DNA picture. But, it is not clear that this must be the case.  Some LDS have believed in a total eradication of the Jaredites, others have argued that Jaredite remnants survived and mixed with the Lehites.  Bruce R. McConkie, while believing that the majority of Amerindian descent was from Israel (i.e. Lehi, Ishmael, and Mulek) nevertheless wrote: "The American Indians, however, as Columbus found them also had other blood than that of Israel in their veins. It is possible that isolated remnants of the Jaredites may have lived through the period of destruction in which millions of their fellows perished."
 
|sublink1=Question: What influence might the Jaredites have had on New World DNA?
 
}}
 
 
 
===== =====
 
{{SummaryItem
 
|link=Book of Mormon/DNA evidence/Fundamentalist "suicide bombing"
 
|subject=Fundamentalist "suicide bombing"
 
|summary=It should be remembered too that many sectarian critics use DNA science in a sort of "suicide bombing" attack on the Church.<ref>The expression "suicide bombing" in this context comes from Stewart, "DNA and the Book of Mormon."</ref>  The fundamentalist Christian critics are happy to use DNA as a stick to beat the Book of Mormon, but do not tell their readers that there is much ''stronger'' DNA evidence for concepts which fundamentalist Christian readers might not accept, such as evolutionary change in species, or human descent from other primates.
 
|sublink1=Question: Do Christian critics of the Book of Mormon have a double standard regarding DNA evidence?
 
}}
 
</onlyinclude>
 
{{endnotes sources}}
 
 
 
{{Articles Footer 1}} {{Articles Footer 2}} {{Articles Footer 3}} {{Articles Footer 4}} {{Articles Footer 5}} {{Articles Footer 6}} {{Articles Footer 7}} {{Articles Footer 8}} {{Articles Footer 9}} {{Articles Footer 10}}
 
 
 
<!-- PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
 
[[de:Buch_Mormon_und_DNS-Beweise]]
 
[[en:Book of Mormon/DNA evidence]]
 
[[es:El Libro de Mormón/Anacronismos/La evidencia del ADN]]
 
[[pt:O Livro de Mórmon/Evidências de DNA]]
 

Latest revision as of 18:50, 7 March 2023