LAT: DNA tests shake the Book of Mormon's foundations

[stopbush]

DNA tests shake the Book of Mormon's foundations
Evidence of ancestry at odds with teachings

By WILLIAM LOBDELL
Los Angeles Times
March 16. 2006 8:00AM


From the time he was a child in Peru, the Mormon Church instilled in Jose Loayza the conviction that he and millions of other Native Americans were descended from a lost tribe of Israel that reached the New World more than 2,000 years ago.
"We were taught all the blessings of that Hebrew lineage belonged to us and that we were special people," said Loayza, now a Salt Lake City attorney. "It not only made me feel special, but it gave me a sense of transcendental identity, an identity with God."

A few years ago, Loayza said, his faith was shaken and his identity stripped away by DNA evidence showing that the ancestors of American natives came from Asia, not the Middle East. "I've gone through stages," he said. "Absolutely denial. Utter amazement and surprise. Anger and bitterness."

For Mormons, the lack of discernible Hebrew blood in Native Americans is no minor collision between faith and science. It burrows into the historical foundations of the Book of Mormon, a 175-year-old transcription that the church regards as literal and without error.


For those outside the faith, the depth of the church's dilemma can be explained this way: Imagine if DNA evidence revealed that the Pilgrims didn't sail from Europe to escape religious persecution but rather were part of a migration from Iceland - and that U.S. history books were wrong.
Critics want the church to admit its mistake and apologize to millions of Native Americans it converted. Church leaders have shown no inclination to do so. Indeed, they have dismissed as heresy any suggestion that Native American genetics undermine the Mormon creed.

By WILLIAM LOBDELL

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060316/REPOSITORY/603160369/1013/48HOURS

[sam sarrha]

1. Lies and the lying liars that tell them.. cant even trust gOD any more..

so the 'Word of gOD' is worth what now.. Hopefully it will reflect on all religions

hopefully people will realize that if you want to be special.. you have to do good things just because you are good and aren't going to be rewarded for it.. but that would make the Republican Party look like a big party of drug dealers at a whore house.. no slander intended to the actual whores.. they actually work for a living.

[Atman]

10. ANYMORE?

Isn't it a bit crazy to trust a floating ghost in the first place?

[carolinayellowdog]

2. So do archaeology, linguistics, and history

Hi,

Somehow I doubt that this will shake the faith of Mormons, who have already resisted overwhelming evidence from multiple fields of study that undermines the BOM. One thing that surprises me is that the former Reorganized LDS church (now called the Community of Christ) has abandoned the claim that the BOM is the ancient document it claims to be. You can write about it as a 19th century construction and not get excommunicated for doing so-- unlike the Utah Mormons.

CYD

[helderheid]

5. I live in Utah and this is the first I've heard of this article.

[northzax]

3. so science and faith collide again

interesting. but not all that useful, people will believe what they will.

[stop the bleeding]

4. Southpark has a great episode about this

Dum dum dum dum:rofl:

smart smart smart:rofl:

:rofl:

[AngryAmish]

6. Many Native American creation stories omit migration stories

First, I'm not even remotely on Native American folklore, so if I'm wrong please disregard. That said...

I think I heard that many American Indian tribes oral history says that the tribes were created in the Americas and had been here forever. This issue came up in the Kennowick man controversy. The DNA is pretty convincing that there migrations from Asia. I don't think Native Americans are having huge crises of faith because of this and I suspect Mormons will be the same.

[KurtNYC]

11. iroqois myths say that a woman came

from "another world" with a bag of seeds. And that this continent is like the back of a giant turtle. Seems like a metaphor for migration.

There is also a whole movement to establish more facts that support the idea that the Chinese came in 1421-1423 and made it to the interior of the continent. The dynasty in China at the time was the Ming and the natives in the middle northwest called themselves the wyoming (or Wyo Ming). Lots of other wild stuff. The project is here:
http://www.1421.tv/pages/evidence/index.asp

[Warpy]

14. Pueblo/Hopi myths have people emerging

from the last world through a hole in the ground, which sounds like another migration myth to me.

They also tell us that this world has about run its course, and that people of all colors will return to the center to emerge into the next world.

They're very private people, but they've shared this much.

[alphafemale]

15. The Wyo Ming?

:rofl:

I love that!

[pansypoo53219]

12. not all tribes from asia

i think i have heard. of course the bering land bridge is a load of crap. never believed in that theory. and what if natives went to asia? has THAT ever been considered?

[AngryAmish]

16. Not really

(In my schoolboy genetics) There is a concept of timing the rate of mutations in genes. The age of genetic mutations of Native Americans is younger than other mutations in Asian folks. If the reverse migration occurred the folks in Asia would have certain mutations prevelent in Native Americans and not visa versa. I think.

For example there are certain parts of the DNA code (mitocondrial DNA) that everybody has. This is the Eve theory that evryone had a common female ancestor many years ago.

All this stuff I am imperfectly remembering. If anyone really knows what they are talking about I would love to hear it.

[Johonny]

19. The evidence seems pretty overwhelming that

Humans evolved in Africa.

There is also overwhelming evidence that Asia/Amerca migration pathway was possible at varying times throughout the historical past.

[Neil Lisst]

7. When Joseph Smith wrote his book, he was borrowing from popular culture

The notion that the Americas were peopled by the lost tribes of Israel was one that had some currency in the United States before Joseph Smith used it as a basis for his new religion. He also borrowed heavily from the Masonic Lodge for church rituals.

The DNA findings have killed that whole storyline.

[malaise]

8. The Chinese and North Africans will have

a good laugh when the DNA evidence for most of the indigenous people of our hemisphere is known. There is also more and more evidence showing that North Africans crossed over to South America. They arrived long before the Europeans. Most of the history books are lies.

[Lisa]

9. that's what happens when you take religious parables too seriously ...

Let alone attempt to base a culture upon them.

Churches may complain about secularism, but it does make society more robust to these kinds of discoveries. The revelation that the Pilgrims came from Iceland would be viewed with a shrug, because it would NOT threaten the basic principles the US is founded upon. We've already come to terms with the fact that Vikings from Iceland and Greenland did in fact reach the East Coast before Columbus and Cabot ... big deal! Learning that the Chinese reached California or Mexico many centuries ago -- or that the ancestors of Native Americans crossed from Asia by coastline-hopping in small boats, in several waves of migration -- would be interesting, but it wouldn't threaten our fundamental way of life.

(trans-Pacific migration stories do appear in some First Nations legends -- the origin of the Haida and Tlingit, for example -- and the DNA appears to back this up)
http://users.on.net/~mkfenn/page2.htm

Far bigger mental shakeups than Pilgrim-debunking would be the theory of evolution -- or the end of slavery -- or the expansion of civil rights to women and visible minorities. We seem to have weathered those changes pretty well.

[Warpy]

13. Gee, another religious cult founded on a bunch of hot air,

wishful thinking, and outright lies? Well, color me shocked.

It would be different if they'd acknowledge the truth and drop the false pedigree they've used to gain converts and try to gain converts on the strengths of that faith. I sincerely doubt they will. To doubt scripture is to commit blasphemy, even if all the facts in the world are telling you the sky is blue instead of green with purple polkadots. If your religion says the latter, you are desperate to believe it and will swear to it on a stack of your holiest books.

In other words, don't expect them to do anything but attack the messenger or maybe even challenge the authenticity of real Jews.

[AngryAmish]

18. Ever hear of Christian Identity?

This is a white supremicist religion that says that the lost tribes of Isreal are really northern european folks. The people that call themselves Jews are spawn of Satan or something sick like that.

[radfringe]

17. no problem

they'll say the dna test was wrong and deny the existence of science

[Virginia Dare]

20. You mean, the church was wrong?

SHOCKING!


:wow:

[ladjf]

21. Theologians who ignore science are always going to cause

this sort of misery.