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Miraculous claims surrounding the coming forth of the Book of Mormon are an evidence of the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith. Critics intent on discrediting the Restoration point to DNA studies on indigenous American peoples in an attempt to expose Joseph, the Book of Mormon, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as frauds. Claiming that scientific evidence excludes any possibility that Middle Eastern or ancient Jewish travelers came to the Americas in antiquity, such critics attempt to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of Latter-day Saints and those of other faiths concerning the authenticity of the Book of Mormon as an ancient religious text.
Are these studies credible? Do the data actually show what the critics claim? Do they discredit the Book of Mormon, or is there biological and other scientific evidence that supports the claims that it is indeed an ancient record of a people that once inhabited the Americas?
The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) interviews scholars and scientists to answer these important questions and reveals the faith-affirming truth that not only are the critics’ conclusions and methods flawed, but that there is credible scientific evidence in favor of the Book of Mormon as an ancient religious text.
This is an audio recording of a video entitled The Book of Mormon and New World DNA.” The DVD can be purchased at the FAIR Bookstore here. More about DNA can be found at the FAIR Wiki here.
I have just watched the new full-length video “The Book of Mormon and New World DNA,” and find it generally very well done. My one objection is to the assumption that we are dealing solely with sampling of modern DNA, which of course often has nothing to do with ancient population genetics. This is a particular problem with Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum’s claims in this video that the DNA of modern Jews in Israel has little or nothing to do with the genetics of Jews in Jerusalem of 600 B.C., and suggesting that we have no way of knowing what that ancient DNA may have been like. He also buys into the erroneous notion that Ashkenazi (European) Jews are mostly Khazar converts. There is little or no support for these assumptions, and a good deal of evidence to suggest that modern Jews worldwide are closely related genetically. Aside from that, the way to understanding ancient DNA is via the testing of skeletal remains in both the Old and New World.