How do you do DNA testing without DNA?

Question

People say that DNA testing has proven the Book of Mormon to be false, because it shows that the Native American Indians are not descended from the Jews. But, wouldn't you need the DNA of the people who you are comparing DNA with? For example, to know if today's Native American Indians are descended from the Lamanites, you would need the DNA of the Lamanites from the end of the Book of Mormon. And even then, nothing will be conclusive, since many centuries have passed and DNA gets "diluted" or "evolved" or whatever.

http://farms.byu.edu/publications/dna/ButlerBofMandDNA_Feb2006.php

As I recall, there never was any TESTING done, all this DNA stuff with the Book of Mormon was based on research already done. So, there has, as far as I know, never been any testing done specifically to find out if the Native American Indians have any sort of DNA link with ancient Jews.

Answer 1

besides, the Lamanites were descendents of the Manasseh, Joseph's [of Egypt fame] son -- not Judah. Different mother -- and they usually use the matriarchal markers for that far back.

But it gives them something to gripe about, and after all -- men are that they might have joy... if griping and fault finding make them happy --

Answer 2

Perhaps the Lamanites lived in South America? The DNA testing that was done is far from conclusive. If the Book of Mormon clearly pointed to a recognizable geographical area and said, "ok, they lived here and these specific modern day people are their descendants", then yeah, a meaningful DNA test could be done. But since we don't have any of that starting information, it's all just guesswork and speculation.

EDIT: Wow, terrific link to "FARMS" above! That solidifies the skepticism I've had for the dna "conslusions" on the Book of Mormon. Thanks!

Answer 3

Hi Mormon_4_Jesus,

The thing is, thousands of people have been tested and thus far it does show that of these people, few have been shown to have Jewish decent. From what I remember, weren't the Lamanites supposed to have been an abundant people?

I like the beliefs of the Mormons, I went to a Ward for a while, and met a lot of great people. The concept of God not sending people to Hell for not believing in Him is great. Even the idea that the universe has always existed in one form or another (read in the JOD somewhere). But the evidence is stacking up against it. There has not been anything found that would prove that the BoM is correct, I even searched up and down Jeff Lindsey's site with hope and it offered weak evidence..

Well, I am more so explaining why I don't believe. The basic fact I wanted to point out is, there should have been a larger trace of Jewish descendants in Native Americans than what was found. Thanks for the link though.

Answer 4

No the maternal mitochondrial DNA is unchanged as it is passed down, so comparisons can be made between the existing DNA of 2 sets of people and similarity observed.

Regardless of the DNA proving that the Native American and the Jews are not closely (i.e. in the last 5000 years) related there is the simple fact that the Native Americans were here at least 5000 years before the Hebrew civilization was started. Not to mention that no traces have been found of the civilizations mentioned in the book of Mormon

Answer 5

Of course you cannot DNA without DNA testing.
Both should be tested to find the right result. People who said the Book of Mormon false not because of inaccurate DNA result, its because of their inaccurate position how to respond with the truth.

Nobody can pinpoint where these American Indians from. If according to the Book as their historical evidence, then this could be very helpful.

Its normal for human to travel from one place to the other or more than that if they were commanded to do so like Israel when they were commanded to go to Egypt.

Why basing DNA on Book of Mormon when this Book can only find out if it's true or not. Read the promised Moroni 10:3-5

Answer 6

When geneticists are looking at the origins of peoples, they use marker genes to see which groups among modern man has which markers. The native Americans have far more markers in common with Asians than they do with Middle Easterners.

By looking at the way that these marker genes are distributed you can create a family tree of humanity. You don't need samples of ancient DNA.

Answer 7

Matriarchal DNA does not dilute. If there ever were some descendants of Jewish people in the America's it would be track-able. Unless the BoM is suggesting they migrated, and then died without ever breeding or leaving any trace of descendants. I've read the BoM, and it does not suggest this. It has been a long held belief by many generations of LDS before me, that current north American indigenous people were descended from migrating middle easterners.

There is no evidence to that effect, and in fact, the evidence clearly shows migration from Asia.

Answer 8

DNA is use in courts of law today. In 1912 baby from the Titanic was identity in 2007.
Farms is going to come with excuses to prove that the book of Mormon is true so members don't leave the chruch.. The book of Mormon wouldn't stand in the court of law today.

Answer 9

no, that's how people find there true heritage, DNA or RNA normally keeps the traits of our ancestors in tightly packed strings that scientist like to call, "chromosomes".. and in these "chromosomes" there are billions of lines of genetic code in which not all are active. it's easy to find out who is who and what is what, now finding common ancestors like if we really did come from great apes or not is different, because there would only be percentages like 68% which would be a huge indication that the two species are in fact related, not to mention that we are 84% geneticly in common.. but to say that we evovled from apes would negate this whole debate.. have a nice day, and umm, either take theology classes or some science classes, it might help you out a little.

Answer 10

Is there any way that they can get the DNA from the bones of the deceased? I know there are different test that they can do with the marrow, so if there is any left maybe they run DNA test on that.