DNA evidence conclusively proves Native Americans did not come from the Middle East, so how does a Mormon explain this?

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regarding the OP, i’ve also heard that mormons wear special underwear
To be fair, are the habits worn by members of various religious orders silly to you?
The temple garments worn by Mormons who have been thru the temple and made certain covenants are to remind them of those very covenants.

How is that specifically different from members of religious communities who wear habits, which also are to be reminders of the the vows they have made??? 🤷
 
To be fair, are the habits worn by members of various religious orders silly to you?
The temple garments worn by Mormons who have been thru the temple and made certain covenants are to remind them of those very covenants.

How is that specifically different from members of religious communities who wear habits, which also are to be reminders of the the vows they have made??? 🤷
Excellent point that can’t be argued.
 
Before even considering answering the statement made in the first post, I would have to see some scientific evidence proving the statement.

Without that evidence, the allegation carries no weight. The first inhabitants of the New World carry with them the genetic characteristics of Asians, not Arabic people.

There also is no evidence or even a scrap of proof that anyone from the Middle East visited the Western Hemisphere.

Seeker
 
i’m not sure i follow you. i can prove that blue cheese is my favorite, it’s all i eat. hook, line, sinker. it would be much harder to prove that blue cheese is the best, but still possible. i would look at worldwide cheese consumption and production, i might have expert cheese tasters evaluate different kinds, i could survey the population at random. it still wouldn’t conclusively prove that blue cheese is the best, because that doesn’t mean anything, but i could then say something about who likes what cheese, and maybe even why.

but if i never broached the subject, i never made a cheese claim, i wouldn’t have to prove anything. claiming there was a global flood is a claim, not claiming so does not require any evidence. the non-claim would be akin to the null hypothesis in statistics. another way to look at this would be to say that not-smoking isn’t a habit, because not-smoking is the default position.

in the same way, claiming the amount of water on earth has remained nearly constant is the default position. there are tsunamis, and depending on one’s perspective, it could appear that water had covered the entire world, but that is only a local flood.

i’m kind of digressing, because i got interested in earth’s water’s origins and looked up a bunch of stuff. but yeah… i don’t have to prove something i didn’t say.

regarding the OP, i’ve also heard that mormons wear special underwear;p that’s a little silly, but there is also the entire claim about the golden tablets that nobody ever corroborated. as they were described, they should have weighed over 150 pounds, yet they were easily moved about by just one person. it’s just another miracle;p
abirdrrl brought this to discussion by saying he had conclusive proof that it did not happen, for the purposes of discussion that moves the onus to him to show that conclusive proof, rather than someone who simply says they believe it happened.

Had no one commented that they had conclusive proof that it did not happen, the onus would remain on the need to prove it did happen.

Of course lack of any evidence either way (which isn’t the case here, obviously there is the above mentioned evidence against the idea of a worldwide flood - though nothing “conclusive”) does not mean the proposition is true or false.
 
Steve,

Catholics **do not need to believe **in a literal worldwide flood (but may if they wish)
I am leaning towards the Catholic faith for precisely this reason.
There is no geological evidence of a literal world-wide flood.
There are numerous problems with the idea that there was one, but let’s not go there now as those topics are most likely still under a “temporary ban” that has never been lifted.
Bahai are in line with the scientific evidence on this, if they are not required to believe in a literal world wide flood event. They would also be in line with Catholic theology in doing so.
Just saying.
Good to see you around!
Thanks for your comments and I would agree with you. The purpose of the flood, however, was a “baptism” of sorts, the cleansing of the earth due to the evil that existed. I don’t think that required that every inch of land be covered by water. But I do believe there was a flood and an Ark. We are told that God made the sun stand still for three days. My point is that God can do anything He wishes whether we find it palusible or not. But this is way off topic and so I’ll end my comments there.
 
Back on topic. Even though DNA science is very advanced as compared to 5 years ago…and especally a decade or two ago…we don’t know everything. There has been some MAJOR DNA related historical blunders in the past few years (none of which I can remember now of course)

There’s also DNA anomolies like when non-identiacl twins fuse and a person can literally have two different DNA.

thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=23

So DNA is not end all be all…certinally not enough to attack another faith.
 
Back on topic. Even though DNA science is very advanced as compared to 5 years ago…and especally a decade or two ago…we don’t know everything. There has been some MAJOR DNA related historical blunders in the past few years (none of which I can remember now of course)

There’s also DNA anomolies like when non-identiacl twins fuse and a person can literally have two different DNA.

thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=23

So DNA is not end all be all…certinally not enough to attack another faith.
But when one combines the complete lack of evidence for the existence of the civilizations mentioned in the Book of Mormon with the DNA evidence I think we can begin to get a picture of the truthfulness of the story.
 
Are there any fomer vocal Mormons that have cited this as a reason they left that Church?
This is how they do it:

jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/DNA.shtml

bookofmormonevidence.org/downloads.php

Mormons have come to believe the Israelites who entered America were only a small population as compared to those who entered from Asia. Some Mormons see the Haplogroup X population around Western New York as evidence the Nephites and Lamanites may have settled there. In any event the Mormons believe that some of the descendants of the Nephites and Lamanites are still alive even though they may not show it in their DNA. So there is your answer.
 
But when one combines the complete lack of evidence for the existence of the civilizations mentioned in the Book of Mormon with the DNA evidence I think we can begin to get a picture of the truthfulness of the story.
I’m just saying that our scientific technology proves something…but I wouldn’t condem an entire faith system over it.
 
I’m just saying that our scientific technology proves something…but I wouldn’t condem an entire faith system over it.
In my opinion the Book of Mormon was proven false before the DNA evidence even surfaced. The DNA evidence only cemented the obvious. The Book of Mormon is nothing more than a fraud based on the incorrect belief that Native Americans were descended from the 12 tribes of Israel, a popular theory in the early 19th century. Oliver Cowdrey, Joseph Smith’s “scribe”, would have been well acquainted with Ethan Smith’s “View of the Hebrews” which reflected the popular view at the time. Ethan Smith was the minister at the church Oliver Cowdrey’s family attended. There are many former Mormons who were influenced by the DNA evidence including this former Bishop:

signaturebooks.com/2010/02/losing-a-lost-tribe-native-americans-dna-and-the-mormon-church/
 
I’m just saying that our scientific technology proves something…but I wouldn’t condem an entire faith system over it.
Agreed. I would not condemn this faith based upon scientific evidence alone. As part of the mountain of evidence against this religion being true, however, including, but not limited to historic and scriptural evidence, it doesn’t help their cause. The degree of probability surrounding DNA evidence is in the high 90th percentile.
 
StrawberryJam,

It’s a valid question. Mormons are seriously into their ancestry for this very reason. In fact, it’s at the heart of much of their doctrine. In this case DNA is most likely going to be the occasion for another ‘testimony’ from a prophet.

I live in a part of the US that is very heavily populated with Mormons and this is causing a stir amongst them. I keep them in my prayers. I feel somewhat sorry for them. It must be very hard to find out that you have been taught things that turn out not to be true.
 
But when one combines the complete lack of evidence for the existence of the civilizations mentioned in the Book of Mormon with the DNA evidence I think we can begin to get a picture of the truthfulness of the story.
A “complete” lack of evidence is hardly descriptive of the BoM civilizations. Native Americans did build cities, and so forth, so there is some evidence at least.
 
If you want to know how Mormons defend this, why not go straight to the source. I personally love researching other religions (I find the topic of faith and religion fascinating) and Mormonism is one of those religions that just fascinates me (mainly because it is to young).

Anyways, if you really want to know what they believe about this, go to the source. FairLDS is a LDS apologetics site. I thought I’d post a couple of links relating to this topic:
fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/Book_of_Mormon_and_DNA.html
fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/DNA_and_the_Book_of_Mormon.html
fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/DNA_and_the_Book_of_Mormon_2.html

I hope it’s ok if I posted pro-LDS links. I did it just to show what they actually think instead of a bunch of Catholics talking about what they think. i hope this is ok, if it is not, I apologize.
 
A “complete” lack of evidence is hardly descriptive of the BoM civilizations. Native Americans did build cities, and so forth, so there is some evidence at least.
Yes, agreed. However, in the years previous to 1830, there were plenty of books available about pre 1492 civilization in the Americas. I posted on the flood thread, downloadable links of one two-volume work which has many parallels with the BoM. It was first available in the US well before the BoM was written, and was very popular.
 
If you want to know how Mormons defend this, why not go straight to the source. I personally love researching other religions (I find the topic of faith and religion fascinating) and Mormonism is one of those religions that just fascinates me (mainly because it is to young).

Anyways, if you really want to know what they believe about this, go to the source. FairLDS is a LDS apologetics site. I thought I’d post a couple of links relating to this topic:
fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/Book_of_Mormon_and_DNA.html
fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/DNA_and_the_Book_of_Mormon.html
fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/DNA_and_the_Book_of_Mormon_2.html

I hope it’s ok if I posted pro-LDS links. I did it just to show what they actually think instead of a bunch of Catholics talking about what they think. i hope this is ok, if it is not, I apologize.
They can’t find any reliable evidence to support it so they are reduced to saying you can’t prove that it’s not true. They ignore the evidence that shows the probability of it being true is next to zero.
 
They can’t find any reliable evidence to support it so they are reduced to saying you can’t prove that it’s not true. They ignore the evidence that shows the probability of it being true is next to zero.
There are both DNA evidences and archeological evidences that the origins of ancient civilizations who lived in North, Central and South America did not have merely one source of ancestry, and had complex civilizations–(who’d of thought?!)

Here are some examples of articles about this topic, of interest to informed, thinking people of all kinds and backgrounds:

pages.interlog.com/~gilgames/cahokia.htm

Another:

news.preview.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080508-first-americans.html

A link to many links about this subject:

jms.aps.edu/JMS/Lopez/link1.htm

Peace to all readers.🙂
 
There is also conclusive evidence that there was no worldwide flood, but people are still searching Mt Ararat for an ark 😃

Faith blinds people from truth.
There IS compelling evidence that there was a massive flood near the area of the Tigris and Euphrates thousands of years ago, along with surrounding areas.

Believe it or not, in the Bible the “world” refers to the area that roughly makes up the middle east; jerusalem in the Bible is basically the center of the world. 👍

So there is still evidence that there was a massive catastrophic flood that took out half the middle east and some of europe thousands of years ago. Think outside of the box once in a while. :rolleyes:
 
As others have said, there isn’t enough water, there is no geological record of the great flood, no mass extermination of humans (except Noah and his family!), etc. I brought this up because there are so many people who believe in a literal flood against all evidence, while criticizing Mormons for believing Native Americans are from the middle east.

When I said ‘faith blinds people from the truth,’ what I’m saying is since people have already come to a conclusion based on faith (earth is 6k years old, literal flood, Indians come from Middle East) they end up ignoring all evidence to the contrary that would lead them to the truth, and instead cling to their faith. Science and religion should not contradict. I think most Catholics would agree with that. Since they don’t take the bible literally like fundamentalists do, when scientific evidence contradicts a literal interpretation of the bible, it’s not a crisis of faith, it just means that part of the bible shouldn’t be taken literally.

I hope you do pray for me, I need all the prayers I can get. God bless.
Again, why don’t you consider a Flood that dealt with the middle east and some of europe only?
 
To be fair, are the habits worn by members of various religious orders silly to you?
The temple garments worn by Mormons who have been thru the temple and made certain covenants are to remind them of those very covenants.

How is that specifically different from members of religious communities who wear habits, which also are to be reminders of the the vows they have made??? 🤷
Or even when Catholics wear scapulars.
 
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