FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Difference between revisions of "Book of Mormon/DNA evidence"
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*Blake T. Olser, “Assessing the Logical Structure of DNA Arguments Against the Book of Mormon,” Part I of II, ''Sunstone'' (December 2004):70–72. | *Blake T. Olser, “Assessing the Logical Structure of DNA Arguments Against the Book of Mormon,” Part I of II, ''Sunstone'' (December 2004):70–72. | ||
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| + | *{{Sunstone|author=Blake T. Olser|article=Reply to David A. Anderson (letter to the editor)|date=September 2005|num=138|start=8|end=10}} [http://www.sunstoneonline.com/magazine/issues/138/02-10_letters%20web.pdf *] | ||
Revision as of 00:10, 28 November 2005
Contents
Criticism
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.
Sources of the Criticism
- Thomas W. Murphy, "Lamanite Genesis, Genealogy, and Genetics," in Dan Vogel and Brent Lee Metcalfe, eds., American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002).
- Simon G. Southerton, Losing a Lost Tribe : Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2004).
Response
Possible responses include:
- Criticism presumes HGT with an empty hemisphere at Lehi's arrival, while the Book of Mormon does not require either of those.
- If Lehi had arrived to a populated continent, and his descendents intermarried with indigenous people, his genetic signature would have been lost over the last 2,600 years in an overwhelming sea of Asiatic DNA.
Conclusion
On 11 November 2003, the Church released the following statement:
- The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ is exactly what it claims to be — a record of God's dealings with peoples of ancient America and a second witness of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The strongest witness of the Book of Mormon is to be obtained by living the Christ-centered principles contained in its pages and by praying about its truthfulness.
- Recent attacks on the veracity of the Book of Mormon based on DNA evidence are ill considered. Nothing in the Book of Mormon precludes migration into the Americas by peoples of Asiatic origin. The scientific issues relating to DNA, however, are numerous and complex.
- —"Mistakes in the News: DNA and the Book of Mormon" (http://newsroom.lds.org).
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
FAIR web site
- FAIR Topical Guide: DNA and the Book of Mormon
- Motivation, Behavior, and Dissention - Background to Thomas Murphy's anti-Mormon activity
External links
- "The Problematic Role of DNA Testing in Unraveling Human History," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies (Provo: FARMS, 2000), 66–84
- Daniel C. Peterson, "Prolegomena to the DNA Articles," FARMS Review 15:2 (2003): 25–34.
- Matthew Roper, "Nephi's Neighbors: Book of Mormon Peoples and Pre-Columbian Populations," FARMS Review 15:2 (2003): 91–128.
- Matthew Roper, "Swimming the Gene Pool: Israelite Kinship Relations, Genes, and Genealogy," FARMS Review 15:2 (2003): 129–164
- James E. Smith, "Nephi's Descendants? Historical Demography and the Book of Mormon Review of "Multiply Exceedingly: Book of Mormon Population Sizes" by John C. Kunich," FARMS Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6:1 (1994): 231–267.
- John L. Sorenson, "The Problematic Role of DNA Testing in Unraveling Human History," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 9:2 (2000): 66–74.
- Brian D. Stubbs, "Elusive Israel and the Numerical Dynamics of Population Mixing," FARMS Review 15:2 (2003): 165–182.
Printed material
- Blake T. Olser, “Assessing the Logical Structure of DNA Arguments Against the Book of Mormon,” Part I of II, Sunstone (December 2004):70–72.