LDS Essay Book of Mormon and DNA Studies

15 August

lds1In January 2014 the Church published an essay for their Gospel Topics section they dubbed Book of Mormon and DNA Studies.

 

 

Today we’re taking a look at their claims in this one and weighing them against factual information we have from none other than the Church itself.

We’ve pulled out six of the most damning comments they made proving themselves to be a false church that continues to go out of its way to make excuses and cover their tracks on the reality of what their beloved prophet Joseph Smith claimed in the Book of Mormon.

1.Although the primary purpose of the Book of Mormon is more spiritual than historical, some people have wondered whether the migrations it describes are compatible with scientific studies of ancient America.

I’ve read similar statements in the recent past by Church leaders and I’m imploring the Mormon people to stop and think about it this time. Please!

If the BoM isn’t historical doesn’t that discredit the entire thing? The BoM is based on a story that an unknown tribe of Israelites left Jerusalem circa BC 600 and sailed to America to escape the violence taking place during the Babylonian takeover.

This is the most damning thing they could say about their canon. Can you just imagine Christians saying that the Bible has no historical value???  Preposterous!

If this isn’t an historical document then what did Moroni mean when he told Joseph Smith a story of ancient people were written on plates?

Joseph Smith History 1:34; “He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants”.

Shouldn’t this discredit everything Smith ever wrote or said? Why should we believe this story or the story of Moroni or Nephi (or whatever it was) visiting him if the BoM isn’t an historical event?

2.Nothing is known about the DNA of Book of Mormon peoples, and even if their genetic profile were known, there are sound scientific reasons that it might remain undetected. For these same reasons, arguments that some defenders of the Book of Mormon make based on DNA studies are also speculative. In short, DNA studies cannot be used decisively to either affirm or reject the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon.

Well, if there’s no historical purpose in the BoM why would anyone expect to find any DNA evidence?  Let’s take a look at what they said;

“…even if their genetic profile were known, there are sound scientific reasons that it might remain undetected…”

???  How could it be undetected if it were known? Just to be clear about something in this paragraph…there’s no problem with identifying the DNA of Jews today so why would there be a problem with the ancestors in the BoM if they were Jewish?

Their last sentence in the above paragraph is just silly.

“…DNA studies cannot be used decisively to either affirm or reject the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon…”

Of course DNA studies can’t be used!  The BoM is a story.  It’s not factual. It’s unreliable. It contradicts itself and there is no proof!

3.The Book of Mormon provides little direct information about cultural contact between the peoples it describes and others who may have lived nearby. Consequently, most early Latter-day Saints assumed that Near Easterners or West Asians like Jared, Lehi, Mulek, and their companions were the first or the largest or even the only groups to settle the Americas.

First of all, the BoM provides little info on any of the people groups. That includes their main characters the Nephites, Lamanites and Jardites.

4.Joseph Smith appears to have been open to the idea of migrations other than those described in the Book of Mormon, and many Latter-day Saint leaders and scholars over the past century have found the Book of Mormon account to be fully consistent with the presence of other established populations. The 2006 update to the introduction of the Book of Mormon reflects this understanding by stating that Book of Mormon peoples were “among the ancestors of the American Indians.”

Again, we have to ask…does this make sense to you? It’s not a matter of Smith being ‘open to migrations’, this is a matter of how many lies Smith wove into the story of the Israelites coming to America.

What do ‘other leaders and scholars’ finding the BoM account to be consistent with other people groups have to do with the issue at hand?

Are they acknowledging the American continents had other people other than those described in the BoM? Okay, so what does that have to do with the DNA issue?

Their 2006 update to the BoM reflects something all right. It reflects they knew the gig was up. Too many thinking people came along and questioned the Book of Mormon, the Church and Joseph Smith.

5.Nothing is known about the extent of intermarriage and genetic mixing between Book of Mormon peoples or their descendants and other inhabitants of the Americas, though some mixing appears evident, even during the period covered by the book’s text.  What seems clear is that the DNA of Book of Mormon peoples likely represented only a fraction of all DNA in ancient America. Finding and clearly identifying their DNA today may be asking more of the science of population genetics than it is capable of providing.

Untrue. There’s nothing to test or research or find. Scientists have made some amazing discoveries in the past 20+ years, however, the catch to this is that they had something to research and in this particular case they have nothing.

6.A brief review of the basic principles of genetics will help explain how scientists use DNA to study ancient populations. It will also highlight the difficulty of drawing conclusions about the Book of Mormon from the study of genetics.

There’s really no difficulty at all drawing conclusions based on fact. We read the evidence, of which there is none in this case, and from there we can determine there’s no DNA, no shred of any archaeological evidences and no such people that are in the Book of Mormon.

This essay went on and on with a lot of technical talk on mitochondrial DNA, how only mothers can pass this on to her children…etc, etc.

Nothing about their essay in the end had anything to do with the subject matter.

Sadly for the Mormon who’s looking to find info to solidify their faith or to further prove the BoM is true, will come up empty handed.

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One Response to “LDS Essay Book of Mormon and DNA Studies”

  1. MarshaMatthew June 20, 2015 at 12:20 am #

    Let any mormon be accused of a crime he didn’t commit. They will scream from the highest mountain “Where is the DNA evidence that proves I committed this crime??”

    Mormons do believe in DNA, but only when its convenient for them to. Simple facts they cannot bring themselves to swallow.

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