1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Tension in the Mormon Church

Discussion in 'Free-For-All Archives' started by Ps104_33, Jan 5, 2005.

  1. Ps104_33

    Ps104_33 New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2001
    Messages:
    4,005
    Likes Received:
    0
    Here is an excerpt from an excellent article concerning DNA evidence that proves the Book of Mormon wrong. This is from a former Mormon bishop:

    "It was during my second year as a bishop that I stumbled upon DNA research on Native Americans and became quite concerned with what I was reading because as a plant molecular biologist I dealt with DNA all the time. I was extracting DNA from plants and cloning genes, sequencing DNA and I was very familiar with the fundamental technology that was used in these research papers on native Americans and I very quickly over a couple of weeks discovered that in excess of 99% of Native Americans were clearly descended from Asian ancestors. I was a Latter-day Saint that hadn’t been exposed to any research so threatening to my beliefs, and I was deeply, deeply shocked to find that research and DNA evidence that I understood particularly well would so fundamentally challenge the beliefs that I had. And I for several weeks lived with two completely contradictory beliefs in my brain. On the one side I was deeply committed to a belief in the Book of Mormon and to the beliefs of the church which taught that the Native Americans were principally descended from the Lamanites who were derived from Israel. But on the other hand I was faced with DNA research which I had a high degree of confidence in, which completely and utterly contradicted my beliefs. I knew without a doubt that greater than 99% of Native Americans were undoubtedly related to Siberians and not to the Lamanites, to Israelites. And it was only after two weeks that I was able to sort of come to terms with the problem here and that was that the only alternative was that the Book of Mormon beliefs that I had were just not right. And the only way that I could honestly confront this research was to say to my leaders from now on I cannot serve as a bishop because I’m so deeply troubled by some research that I’ve come across." (DNA v. the Book of Mormon, video transcript, pp. 26-27)

    This is a long article but well worth the study for anyone interested.
    READ HERE
     
  2. Ben W

    Ben W Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Sep 16, 2002
    Messages:
    8,883
    Likes Received:
    6
    Thanks for the link to the article, it certainley makes for interesting reading.

    What is also interesting is that those that claim to be "Levites" in Israel or people who want to return to Israel are DNA tested, and from that they can determine if they are in fact of the tribe of Levi or not.
     
  3. Purple Lady

    Purple Lady <img src=/PurpleLady2.jpg>

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2001
    Messages:
    772
    Likes Received:
    0
    Very interesting.
    Thanks for sharing this.
     
  4. Ps104_33

    Ps104_33 New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2001
    Messages:
    4,005
    Likes Received:
    0
    It will be very interesting to see how the Mormon church will handle this one. Dont forget that they consider the Book of Mormon direct revelation from God. But there always was a total lack of archeological evidence to back up Joseph Smith's fable.
     
  5. NateT

    NateT Member

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2000
    Messages:
    886
    Likes Received:
    0
    well if history proves true, they'll somehow change the revelation that J. Smith received and claim that all along the Native Americans were from Asian people (or something like that)
     
  6. Archeryaddict

    Archeryaddict New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2004
    Messages:
    317
    Likes Received:
    0
    something that has always puzzled me is that how was it that the American continent was repopulated after the flood, and what rece of people actually did migrate to the Americas and how did they get here, this includes animals as well, any ideas?
     
  7. SaggyWoman

    SaggyWoman Active Member

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2000
    Messages:
    17,933
    Likes Received:
    10
    Fable is it. Whether or not people were here, it didn't happen.
     
  8. BobRyan

    BobRyan Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 27, 2002
    Messages:
    32,913
    Likes Received:
    71
    Faith:
    Non Baptist Christian
    Hmmm - after the flood - in the days of Peleg "the earth was divided".

    We don't have an exhaustive record of all the massive geologic changes that took place at the flood and shortly thereafter. But I think that a landbridge existed in some form between America and Africa - assuming they were not still "Pangea" after the flood.

    On the other hand - Asian migration implies a langbridge at the Bering straight for the humans (at least).

    In Christ,

    Bob
     
  9. Archeryaddict

    Archeryaddict New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2004
    Messages:
    317
    Likes Received:
    0
    the bearing strait makes sence to me since it is only 53 miles that seperate the 2 continents even if it did not have a land bridge so to speak.

    Makes sence to me
    Thanks.
     
  10. liafailrock

    liafailrock Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2001
    Messages:
    224
    Likes Received:
    12
    Faith:
    Non Baptist Christian
    Hello all:

    I just got off of a long debate on another Christian forum regarding DNA. Supposedly, DNA evidence was used to "prove" that the so-and-so race of lost tribes of Israel did not originate from Abraham. Now, while I do not fully agree with Mormon doctrine, I am a little leary what this DNA evidence, as it is so-called, is telling us. If the present level of understanding was true, then the Ashkenazi Jews are not descended from Abraham, either. In the course of batting this back and forth, I learned more about this subject and that statement alarmed me. If that were the case, 90% of the so-called Jewish people could be Gentiles (tell that to all the Jewish families who suffered in the holocaust). In addition, when the race in question is compared to see if their DNA matches, who do they match it to? The present day Jews (i..e those in the middle eastern region). However, I argued that cannot be a valid commparison of other (lost) tribes of Israel, because while Jews are in the family tree of Israelites, they are not in their pedigree. In just a few generations the sons of Joseph only had about 1/3 in common with the sons of Judah (the Jews).

    I compared it to my family. Both my brother and I share the same father and mother, but with our wives alone, we produced different looking children. My boys look Germanic, or maybe Celtic, the one with blond hair and blue eyes. My brother's daughters have a darker complextion, and the one was even mistaken for hispanic. I seriously doubt that the DNA from our lineages many generations off would "prove" whether or not we had our common father.

    The bottom line, some "new" scientific DNA evidence was discovered, but before all the wrinkles are ironed out, the new "toy" becomes an academic one-up-man-ship to "prove" some faith systems (including Orthodox Christainity or Judaism) is wrong. I have a feeling ten years from now when things are more advanced we will be laughing at all these conclusions.
     
Loading...