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American Indian Dna

There have been studies performed to find out if the DNA of American Indians had any similarities to the DNA of those within the Middle East as a follow-up to the Book of Mormon's history of the people coming from that region. According to the results of the tests the Indians came from Asia and not the Middle East. Is there anything to be made here or is it just that 'those' that they picked happened to be from Asia? Could it be that Asian blood slowly flushed out the Middle Eastern blood throughout the centuries? What is your view?

Dna Indian American

Well, I don't have the answer and neither does Pres. Hinckley. Someone asked him why DNA research shows American Indians come from Asia but the Book of Mormon claims they are from the Middle East. All Pres. Hinckley stated is that has not been confirmed yet. Meaning, I suppose there is an answer that the Lord will reveal some day but he hasn't yet.

One theory I heard that makes sense has to do with the curse the Lord put on the Lamanites. He cursed them with a dark skin for their rebellion. Now, we don't know how he did that. This is beyond any technology we have today. But God, even being all poweful has to follow certain laws and rules of physics. He can't just snap his fingers, he has to follow proper procedure. So, when he changed the Lamanites skin color, how did that effect their DNA? Since they closely resemble Asians in appearance, it is likely they would carry Asian DNA. Again, beyond our current level of technology and scientfic understanding, but well within God's underestanding.

American Indian Dna Studies Doctrine Mormon

A couple of other things to consider:
1. Lack of evidence does not constitute evidence of lack. IOW, just because the available evidence doesn't confirm something doesn't mean that it disproves it.

2. Science is not exact. It is a way to acquire knowledge. Most people look at it the same way we look at revelation - that it is perfect.

It seems to me that there could have been a lot of genetic drift in the Hebrew or semitic peoples over the ages, as well as genetic drift in the Americas.

Dna Indian American

The following quote from Elder Dalin Oaks is interesting when taken in the light of this subject. If the Book of Mormon people were in a limited area for a limited time, it would be impossible to disprove the book from DNA evidence.


Speaking for a moment as one whose profession is advocacy, I suggest that if one is willing to acknowledge the importance of faith and the reality of a realm beyond human understanding, the case for the Book of Mormon is the stronger case to argue. The case against the historicity of the Book of Mormon has to prove a negative. You do not prove a negative by prevailing on one debater's point or by establishing some subsidiary arguments.

For me, this obvious insight goes back over forty years to the first class I took on the Book of Mormon at Brigham Young University. . . . Here I was introduced to the idea that the Book of Mormon is not a history of all of the people who have lived on the continents of North and South America in all ages of the earth. Up to that time I had assumed that it was. If that were the claim of the Book of Mormon, any piece of historical, archaeological, or linguistic evidence to the contrary would weigh in against the Book of Mormon, and those who rely exclusively on scholarship would have a promising position to argue.

In contrast, if the Book of Mormon only purports to be an account of a few peoples who inhabited a portion of the Americas during a few millennia in the past, the burden of argument changes drastically. It is no longer a question of all versus none; it is a question of some versus none. In other words, in the circumstance I describe, the opponents of historicity must prove that the Book of Mormon has no historical validity for any peoples who lived in the Americas in a particular time frame, a notoriously difficult exercise. One does not prevail on that proposition by proving that a particular . . . culture represents migrations from Asia. The opponents of the historicity of the Book of Mormon must prove that the people whose religious life it records did not live anywhere in the Americas. [Dallin H. Oaks, "The Historicity of the Book of Mormon," in Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures, ed. Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2001), 238-39. This talk was first given at the annual dinner of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies in Provo, Utah, on 29 October 1993.]

Dna Indian American

I agree with what Elder Oaks had to say (I think he was President of BYU at the time). DNA will never prove or disprove the Book of Mormon, any more than astrophysics can ever prove or disprove the Creation.

Personally, I believe that the Book of Mormon happened right around the Palmyra, New York region. I don't buy into the idea that it was all in Mesoamerica, that it had anything to do with the Mayas, etc. I doubt that, despite some of the numbers mentioned in the Book of Mormon, that the descendants of Lehi were ever any larger than the tribes of Israel.

Of course, this is PURELY my own opinion. If I am correct, then such bloodlines would probably not really show up throughout the Americas.

I do believe that the Hopi tribe is either descended from Lehi, or was very strongly influenced by Nephites - way back when. I also believe that there are some Nephite descendants somewhere in southern Mexico, but again, that is a personal opinion.

American Indian Dna

This is one of the more scientifically sound and reasonably written articles I have found on the subject:

https://www.fairlds.org/apol/bom/bom07.html

Obviously, the Book of Mormon never mentions meeting other, larger civilizations, but even if they met them after the end of the Book of Mormon, their genetic pool could still be completely different by now. Those who focus on DNA, linguistic patterns, animals, cement, or whatever else without asking the Lord Himself have not trusted reliable sources. If they are unwilling to pray about it, they are unwilling to know the truth, and they are not worth my breath in an argument.

American Indian Dna

Dna is actually something I have studied for a number of years.

Let's take one set of parents both share the same DNA (Israelite). Then they have a child, he marries someone from a different culture, the DNA is different then his grandparents. Let us repeat this process over a thousand years. At the end of the thousand years the DNA of the latest child is radically different then the ones of the first parents. In fact, the first parents DNA can not even be found.

Has for people being here when Lehi landed here's a link to a paper done on this very topic. https://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/pdf.php?fi...m&type=amJtcw==

American Indian Dna Mormon Doctrine Studies

The answers given in this Thread are interesting. What would been your responses if there was an article that said, "DNA Evidence of Book of Mormon Peoples From Israel"?