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−	|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?
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Revision as of 07:43, 5 May 2017

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The Book of Mormon and DNA evidence

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.

Book of Mormon/DNA evidence

Book of Mormon/DNA evidence

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."

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.^[1] 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.

Notes

1. ↑ The expression "suicide bombing" in this context comes from Stewart, "DNA and the Book of Mormon."