{"id":29,"date":"2004-07-30T20:29:00","date_gmt":"2004-07-31T03:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/?p=29"},"modified":"2018-12-04T05:08:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T12:08:30","slug":"dna-lamanites-and-book-of-mormon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2004\/07\/30\/dna-lamanites-and-book-of-mormon\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA, Lamanites and Book of Mormon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon Southerton, geneticist and author of Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA and the Mormon Church<\/cite>, has taken up a crusade<\/a> to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[examine] church teachings that American Indians and Polynesians have a historic bond with ancient Israelites.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He does so by using DNA research and applying it to current popular opinion of members of the Church and writings of some scholars with the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies.<\/p>\n

This seems to be a thorny issue for Southerton. He left the Church because there seemed to be no conclusive evidence that supported the widely held notion among Latter-day Saints that Pacific Islanders and indigenous people of the Americas were descended from the Lamanites.<\/p>\n

First, I find it unbelievable\u2014actually, I can believe it, but it still is dumbfounding\u2014that someone\u2019s conviction to the Church can be swayed by scientific evidence. The Book of Mormon is not a scientific journal. It does not establish scientific fact and does not even heavily support scientific theories. It is nothing more than a spiritual record\u2014interspersed with select historical information\u2014of a distinct, isolated group of people.<\/p>\n

Second, there is no indication whatsoever in the Book of Mormon that the Lamanites and Nephites were completely alone in the Americas. To say otherwise is nothing more than speculation. It is entirely plausible and even likely that the Lamanites and Nephites encountered\u2014and even mingled with\u2014other peoples already present in the Americas. This alone would reduce any existence of Israelite DNA. As well, it is entirely plausible that the Lamanite population died off or were exterminated; after all, the record of their history is incomplete.<\/p>\n

Third, popular belief among Latter-day Saints does not equal doctrine. Just because many Latter-day Saints hold on to the archaic notion that all people indigenous to the Americas are descended solely from Lehi, does not make it church doctrine. I wish more people would understand this one principle. Tradition is not doctrine.<\/p>\n

The Book of Mormon is primarily a religious book containing teachings and doctrine about God and Jesus Christ. To treat it primarily as anything else is to treat it as a very shaky foundation.<\/p>\n

That being said, it only take a smidgen of logic to see that DNA research does not disprove the Book of Mormon. One would think a scientist like Southerton would understand that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simon Southerton, geneticist and author of Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA and the Mormon Church, has taken up … Continue reading DNA, Lamanites and Book of Mormon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,80,79,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-of-mormon","category-dna","category-first-nations","category-lamanites"],"yoast_head":"\nDNA, Lamanites and Book of Mormon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2004\/07\/30\/dna-lamanites-and-book-of-mormon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DNA, Lamanites and Book of Mormon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Simon Southerton, geneticist and author of Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA and the Mormon Church, has taken up …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2004\/07\/30\/dna-lamanites-and-book-of-mormon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our Thoughts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2004-07-31T03:29:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-04T12:08:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kim Siever\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kim Siever\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2004\/07\/30\/dna-lamanites-and-book-of-mormon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2004\/07\/30\/dna-lamanites-and-book-of-mormon\/\",\"name\":\"DNA, Lamanites and Book of Mormon\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2004-07-31T03:29:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-04T12:08:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/99e996edc89affe5206808d3f65869d1\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2004\/07\/30\/dna-lamanites-and-book-of-mormon\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/\",\"name\":\"Our Thoughts\",\"description\":\"Thought-provoking commentary on life, politics, religion and social issues.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/99e996edc89affe5206808d3f65869d1\",\"name\":\"Kim Siever\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/417c7b5f55d329bdd0f64ef4396831db?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/417c7b5f55d329bdd0f64ef4396831db?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kim Siever\"},\"description\":\"Queer Mormon poet with radical political views. 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