Mormons: How do you explain DNA evidence that American Indians are not descended from the Hebrews?

Question

"DNA evidence shows that the ancestors of early American settlers came from Asia, not the Middle East."

Do you have an explanation for this? Or do you agree with this statement:
"But religion ultimately does not rest on scientific evidence, but on mystical experiences. There are different ways of looking at truth,"

If so, do you really think God would want you to believe something contrary to reality? Contrary to what is demonstrably true, scientifically?

http://www.irr.org/MIT/southerton-response.html

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/14272/american-indian-mormons-in-crisis-of-spiritual-identity

Sam I am not a Mormon, I am a Christian wondering how Mormons can believe something so demonstrably false.

Sam, I attend a non-denominational Church though I have been a Catholic, an Episcopalian, and a Lutheran in the past. I have multiple versions of the Holy Bible in my home: NIV, KJV, NASB, Net Bible etc. The one I read most often is the NIV

Answer 1

Whoa! Wait a second...
Words are important. So let's make sure we use the correct ones.
There is no such evidence as what you state above. Even scientists who may personally find lots of problems with "Mormonism" will readily agree that there is not. You said "How do you explain DNA evidence that American Indians are not descended from the Hebrews?" Now, no research has shown this, BUT some research has suggested that there is NO evidence that American Indians are descended from the Hebrews. Think about that. There is a huge difference in those two statements. And that is true, some research has suggested that there isn't any evidence to prove a connection.
Now hopefully you will read the entire article I posted below. It is written by a very scholarly researcher who has cited all his sources and you can go check out each one of them yourself. One of the ones you may want to check out is a study that was reported in the June 2003 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics. In it, a group of scientists traced all 131,060 living Icelanders born after 1972 to two groups of ancestors, one born between 1848 and 1892, and other between 1742 and 1798. They found that "the vast majority of potential ancestors [contributed] one or no descendants and a minority of ancestors [contributed] large numbers of descendants." In other words, the majority of people living today in Iceland had ancestors living only 150 years ago that could not be detected based on the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA tests being performed, even though genealogical records showed they were descended from these groups. These tests were much more advanced and easily controlled than the ones done to "so-called" disprove the Lamanite hypothesis put forth by the Book of Mormon.
Another thing to remember is that the Book of Mormon is a religious history and makes no attempt to make broad, sociological claims. It doesn't state how many other people were living here in America when Lehi and his party arrived. Probably thousands were. We just don't know that from the record, because it was a religious history. It was far more concerned with sermons and showing how God delivered the Nephites from the Lamanites whenever they were righteous, and how he allowed the Lamanites to defeat the Nephites when the latter were wicked.
Interestingly, a much larger group arrived about 2,000 years before Lehi and his party called the Jaredites. They were from Asia, and there is plenty of evidence in the Book of Mormon that many of them survived their civilization's collapse. Nephites and Lamanites use Jaredite words and proper names. More than likely, they intermarried with these survivors.
Finally, we certainly do not believe that God wants us to believe anything contrary to fact. When Christ comes again and all the records of heaven are opened, I think that we'll find that history has been stranger than fiction. There will be many surprises for us, I'm sure. I think anthropologists and archeologists, for the most part, and to put it kindly, are doing the best they can but they have far too little to be able to tell us what the past was really like.

P.S. To Paul S if you happen to read this. Show me something that is demonstrably false.
P.P.S. To Sam. Are you saying I'm a non-believer because I'm Mormon? Didn't Christ say, Judge not, that ye be not judged? Are you sure you can really make that kind of judgment? If so, please tell me, based on what?

Answer 2

There are three answers to that question. There are three groups who are mentioned in the Book of Mormon. The first were of Asian descent. They were called Jaredites. The other two were from the the Jerusalem area but from the tribes of Joseph, actually Ephriam and Manassah. That is close to Western Asia. Also, China was known to be great ship builders and there is conjecture by historians. They traveled the seas and very well could have landed on the South American Continent . Lastly the eskimo's in Alaska have strong Asian features and the Alaska Eskimo's and the Navajo Indians have similar languages. This is evidence that there were other migrations. Besides Asian, the Indians also have the the Turkey type asian blood. that would be a strong possibility.

Answer 3

One of the main flaws in this scientific research is the assumption that the Nephite-Lamanite and other civilizations described in the Book of Mormon where the only groups to migrate to this continent, which is an assertion that the Book of Mormon never makes.

I would guess that several other groups of peoples migrated to the Americas from Asia somewhere between the time of the decline of the Nephite/Lamanite civilization and today. The resulting intermingling of the two peoples in some way resulted in the masking of the Middle Eastern DNA traits.

DNA/Genetic Archeology is an extremely young science in relation to other fields of study. The scientists are making many assumptions about the characteristics of DNA that we as lay people can't understand. They make these assumptions with the best evidence that they have, but I'm sure they are discovering more about DNA every day.

Once you make a decision to not believe in something, anything that proves your way of thinking becomes logical or defined as evidence to support your ideas.

It's beyond the realm of science to explain any of God's truths. Science is a study of what exists in human perception which is, as we will all find out some day, an infinitesimally small portion of what actually exists in the universe.

Answer 4

A big scientific flaw to these studies is that they are comparing the DNA of people in Israel, who is in Israel? The tribe of Judah.

The people of the Book of Mormon (who as mentioned were certainly not the only people to inhabit this land - were the French the only colonists here?) are said to be of the tribe of Manasseh, which was scattered by Babylon just after Lehi left Jerusalem. The tribe of Manasseh has since then (about 600 BC) been considered "lost" they intermingled and moved on with other cultures and locations - logically speaking, their DNA SHOULD be found outside of Israel.

Answer 5

I'll answer this in what might seem like a roundabout way. Please bear with me on it; I promise it's all relevant to my answer!

Mormon doctrine explains that the "mark" on Cain after he slew his brother was a darkening of skin (or, as we might say it today, a *very* noticable increase of skin pigmentation, as well as other ethnic traits to go along with that - hair, facial features, etc.). This is the origin of what's today called the African ethnicity.

The American Indian ethnicity is, according to Mormon doctrine, descended from at least two recorded (in the Book of Mormon) migrations from the Middle East region - the first migration was just after the Tower of Babel, and the second was around 600 B.C. According to Mormon doctrine, several individuals from that second migration fell away from the teachings of Christ soon after their journey to the Americas, and also, like Cain and his descendants, received a similar "mark" (thus the beginnings of the what today are often refered to as American Indians).

Now, to answer your question as to why science says there's no DNA evidence to back up the Momon claim that at least some of the American Indians' ansestry came from the Middle East...

While the Mormon Church has not issued any formal response to that issue (that I'm aware of, anyway), it seems to me that if God wanted to ensure that the above mentioned "mark" (increased skin pigmentation) could be passed down from generation to generation with a minimum of fuss or attention on His part, the quickest, most convenient way He could do that would be to alter the DNA of the first individual(s) to receive that "mark" so that it could be passed on to future generations (and if so, who knows how much that DNA might have been changed?).

Might not be the way it was done, but it certainly makes sense to me!

Answer 6

I would explain it this way.
First there were more than one group of people that migrated to America
Second I would say if the scientists took a few samples of DNA in America they could conclude that everyone came from Africa depending on where they took their samples from. They could conclude everyone came from Asia.
Science is always changing. Remember it was a known fact that the world was flat at one time.

Answer 7

I have read the studies that you have referred to. DNA research has been exclusive to a limited number of Indian tribes, NOT all Indian tribes. Studies have shown that the Navajo and Apache tribes have similarities and DNA connections to Alaskan and Asian decendancy. This, however, is connected to only a few tribes and not ALL Indian tribes.

Navajo and Apache legends themselves state that they came from "the North" which would support this. Not all tribes have the same DNA.

Answer 8

May I ask what your Religious Sect is or is not?

Thank you Morg. It is nice to learn that you are a fellow Christian and not a Non-Believer.

Not to be redundant but may I ask you,
What Church are you a Member of and which Version of the Holy Bible do you hold close to your heart.
I ask in the hope of having a better understanding.

Answer 9

Joseph Smith was arrested for fraud in the state of New York using seer stone to find bury treasure. Which proves that he is capable of fraud.
Which means with new DNA science proves that he lied. In court of law today the book of Mormon won't
stand in the court of law today. DNA never lies.

Answer 10

One word: Landbridge!