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Cheese · 12-09-2008, 06:19 PM

DNA and Mormon Scripture

The Book of Mormon teaches that a tribe of Jews sailed from Jerusalem to the New World in 600 BC and split into two factions, at war with each other. On one side were the Nephites who were "God-fearing, white* and delightsome", and on the other were the Lamanites who were idolaters and received the "curse of blackness", meaning that their skin turned dark. According to the Book of Mormon, by 385 AD the idol-worshiping Lamanites had wiped out the Nephites.

The Mormon church considers the Lamanites as the principal ancestors of the American Indians (and teaches that if they returned to church, their skin could once again become white). However, DNA testing has shown that American Indians came from Asia and not the Middle East, leaving the Mormon church to try and explain the gap between scientific evidence that Native Americans were not descendants of a lost Hebrew tribe, and a 175-year-old book that the church regards as literal and without error.

Genetic testing of Jews throughout the world had already shown that they shared common strains of DNA from the Middle East. Southerton examined studies of DNA lineages among Polynesians and indigenous peoples in North, Central and South America. One mapped maternal DNA lines from 7,300 Native Americans from 175 tribes.

Southerton found no trace of Middle Eastern DNA in the genetic strands of today's American Indians and Pacific Islanders.

In "Losing a Lost Tribe," published in 2004, he concluded that Mormonism — his faith for 30 years — needed to be reevaluated in the face of these facts, even though it would shake the foundations of the faith.

In the fall 1997 issue of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, LDS author Brigham Madsen discussed the difficulty that many Latter-day Saints are having with accepting the Book of Mormon as an historical document (Reflections on LDS Disbelief in the Book of Mormon as History). Many who have closely examined the contents of the book in light of scholarship have come to realize that it cannot possibly be true history.
and this...

Mormon leaders cannot acknowledge any factual errors in the Book of Mormon because the prophet Joseph Smith proclaimed it the “most correct of any book on Earth,”.
Bedrock of Faith jolted

12-09-2008, 06:19 PM	#175
Cheese Franchise Player Join Date: Mar 2002 Exp:	DNA and Mormon Scripture The Book of Mormon teaches that a tribe of Jews sailed from Jerusalem to the New World in 600 BC and split into two factions, at war with each other. On one side were the Nephites who were "God-fearing, white* and delightsome", and on the other were the Lamanites who were idolaters and received the "curse of blackness", meaning that their skin turned dark. According to the Book of Mormon, by 385 AD the idol-worshiping Lamanites had wiped out the Nephites. The Mormon church considers the Lamanites as the principal ancestors of the American Indians (and teaches that if they returned to church, their skin could once again become white). However, DNA testing has shown that American Indians came from Asia and not the Middle East, leaving the Mormon church to try and explain the gap between scientific evidence that Native Americans were not descendants of a lost Hebrew tribe, and a 175-year-old book that the church regards as literal and without error. Genetic testing of Jews throughout the world had already shown that they shared common strains of DNA from the Middle East. Southerton examined studies of DNA lineages among Polynesians and indigenous peoples in North, Central and South America. One mapped maternal DNA lines from 7,300 Native Americans from 175 tribes. Southerton found no trace of Middle Eastern DNA in the genetic strands of today's American Indians and Pacific Islanders. In "Losing a Lost Tribe," published in 2004, he concluded that Mormonism — his faith for 30 years — needed to be reevaluated in the face of these facts, even though it would shake the foundations of the faith. In the fall 1997 issue of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, LDS author Brigham Madsen discussed the difficulty that many Latter-day Saints are having with accepting the Book of Mormon as an historical document (Reflections on LDS Disbelief in the Book of Mormon as History). Many who have closely examined the contents of the book in light of scholarship have come to realize that it cannot possibly be true history. and this... Mormon leaders cannot acknowledge any factual errors in the Book of Mormon because the prophet Joseph Smith proclaimed it the “most correct of any book on Earth,”. Bedrock of Faith jolted