{"id":3918,"date":"2003-01-19T13:40:44","date_gmt":"2003-01-19T20:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/?p=3918"},"modified":"2019-07-14T13:41:13","modified_gmt":"2019-07-14T20:41:13","slug":"who-are-the-ancestors-of-indigenous-north-and-south-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2003\/01\/19\/who-are-the-ancestors-of-indigenous-north-and-south-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Are the Ancestors of Indigenous North and South Americans?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An analysis of traditional LDS views regarding the descendants of Nephitic and Lamanitic peoples.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latter-day\nSaints are quite unique when it comes to science. Quite often, as in the\nexamples of evolution and the Big Bang, members of The Church of Jesus Christ\nof Latter-day Saints automatically create a sort of dichotomy for themselves.\nIn other words, if they hear something in a science class or a biology class\nthat appears on the outside to contradict what they were taught in a Sunday\nSchool class, there exists a decision to choose between one or the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often, one\nof two scenarios takes place. The first and most popular of the two usually\nhappens with the individual automatically dismissing the scientific claims or\ntheories as being an affront to the spiritual beliefs and thus have to be\nfalse. Without formulating a response as to why<\/em>\nthey are false, they will go to great length and theories to explain them away\nwith just as wild notions as their feel their instructors have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second\nscenario commonly finds someone on the other side of the spectrum. They are\npresented with exactly the same information, but rather than seeing it as being\nan affront to their spiritual beliefs, they welcome it as a new and higher\nknowledge that supersedes spiritual knowledge. As such, they cannot see any\npossibility of correlation between both scientific and spiritual knowledge, and\nend up solely embracing the scientific. Sadly enough, their once firm belief in\na gospel integral to their life is now miniscule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I must say\nI have found myself often in predicaments explained above and usually saw\nmyself in the first scenario. Over the years, I have learned for myself that scientific\nknowledge and spiritual knowledge are not opposing forms of knowledge. Rather I\nhave found them to be quite complementing of the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\narticle touches upon one such dilemma. Right from my Primary and Sunday School\ndays, I remember being taught that the indigenous people of North and South\nAmerica were descended from the progeny of Lehi, the first prophet mentioned in\nthe Book of Mormon. Building upon that, I also recall being taught that Lehi\u2019s\nfamily members were the ancestors of these same peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never\nreally did have any problem with this until I reached high school. Among such\nthings as the theories of evolution and the Big Bang, I was taught that the\nindigenous peoples of the American continents were descended from Mongolian\nnomads that crossed over the exposed ocean floor of the Bering Strait between\nwhat is know Alaska and Russia. As many Latter-day Saints are prone to do, I\ndismissed this as being impossible since it appeared to conflict what I had\npreviously been taught in Sunday School and Primary classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This paper\noutlines the current opinion I have on the matter and analyses the traditional\nview I touched upon in the previous view. I am not setting out to prove the\nBering Strait theory is correct or incorrect. Nor am I setting out to say that\nthe Book of Mormon can be used to support or refute scientific evidence or\ntheories. My only purpose is to show that scientific and spiritual knowledge\ncan indeed co-exist together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe\nthe first time I ever came upon the \u201ccorrelation option\u201d was when I was doing\nsome intense scripture study as preparation for my impending full-time\nmissionary service. I was studying the Book of Mormon and read in its\nIntroduction that the \u201cLamanites\u2026 are the principal ancestors of the American\nIndians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This quite\nintrigued me because the statement did not say that the Lamanites were \u201cthe\nonly ancestors of the American Indians\u201d, nor did it even say that they were\n\u201cthe ancestors of the American Indians.\u201d Rather it says they were \u201cthe\nprincipal ancestors\u201d. I realised that this meant the possibility of ancestry\nderived from Mongolian nomads, Norse Vikings or any other migratory peoples was\nindeed quite possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I do\nnot want to be one to play semantical games as to what exactly does \u201cprincipal\u201d\nmean, nor do I want to try and prove that this statement somehow disproves any\nscientific evidence that suggests otherwise. My only purpose here is to suggest\nthat scientific and spiritual teachings can co-exist in a degree of harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This,\nhowever, was not what intrigued me the most. I was more astounded by the fact\nthat I now realised that scientific evidence and spiritual instruction could\nactually coincide. In fact, if it was possible the Bering Strait theory and the\nLehitic peoples teaching could co-exist, I thought, then why could evolution\nand creationism not co-exist? Why could the world not be 4.5 billion years old?\nThis discovery opened up a whole new world of acceptance and understanding and\nremoved from my mind years of doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not to be\nquick to base my new found belief on one simple statement, I decided to do some\nmore studying on the subject and noticed that leaders in the Church had\ndiscussed, though briefly, this very subject and left this same sort of\nopportunity open that the Introduction to the Book of Mormon does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example,\nPresident Spencer W. Kimball taught, \u201cThrough the centuries of movements,\ndiscovery, exploration, settlement, and colonization of the people of this\nland, it is not impossible that there could have seeped across the Bering\nStrait a little Oriental blood, as claimed by some people, and possibly a\nlittle Norse blood may have crossed the North Atlantic\u201d[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LDS\nscriptorian Elder Bruce R. McConkie stated something similar with \u201cIt is quite\napparent that groups of orientals found their way over the Bring Strait and\ngradually moved southward to mix with the Indian peoples. We have records of a\ncolony of Scandinavians attempting to set up a settlement in America some 500\nyears before Columbus. There are archeological indications that an unspecified\nnumber of groups of people probably found their way from the old to the new\nworld in pre-Columbian times. Out of all these groups would have come the\nAmerican Indians as they were discovered in the 15th<\/sup> century.\u201d[2]<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> The Teachings of Spencer\nW. Kimball<\/em> (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, Inc, 1982),\n598<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Mormon Doctrine (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, Inc., 1966), 33<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An analysis of traditional LDS views regarding the descendants of Nephitic and Lamanitic peoples. 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