DNA & The Book of Mormon

The purpose of this page is to provide the faithful with various on-line resources which address recent criticism's of the Book of Mormon on the grounds of DNA research.  This controversy had its inception in 2000-2001 and is being popularized through a video produced early in 2003 titled "DNA vs. The Book of Mormon" by Living Hope Ministries.  The video is being distributed here locally by LifeLine Ministries (a.k.a. Ex-RLDS for Jesus) through joint efforts with Eastside Baptist Church, who held a public viewing on April 25, 2004.  The scriptures instruct us that "He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him."  Proverbs 18:13  It is our prayer that honest seekers who "love the truth" will search out these things.

 

The Foundation for Research and Mormon Studies commonly known as FARMS has addressed the DNA criticisms in print and several of those scholarly treatments, by experts in their various fields can be read in the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12/1(2003) and in the FARMS Review of Books 15/2 (2003).  Several of those articles have been made available on-line at:

 

http://farms.byu.edu/publications/dna.php?selection=dna&cat=dna

 

or

 

http://www.lds.org/newsroom/mistakes/0,15331,3885-1-18078,00.html

 

The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research commonly known as FAIR has also provided several on-line treatments concerning this controversy.  Their research materials can be viewed at:

 

http://www.fairlds.org/apol/ai195.html

Jeff Lindsey is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and he has put together probably the best single source which addresses several aspects of this criticism which contains a detailed bibliography for those wanting to do further research.  His article can be seen here:

 

http://www.lds.org/newsroom/files/jeff_lindsay_dna.pdf

 

Mel Tungate is also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and he has chronicled on his webpage the main events pertaining to this criticism against the Book of Mormon.  He has provided several personal emails from the critics and has numerous weblinks concerning this controversy.  His website provides some crucial historical details to this saga and can be perused here:

 

http://www.tungate.com/murphy.htm

 

David Stewart is another member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who has written concerning this criticism and his treatment can be examined here:

 

http://www.fairlds.org/apol/bom/bom12.html

 

Thomas Murphy is a professing Latter-Day Skeptic who has played a key role in bringing this criticism against the Book of Mormon to the table.  Many of his articles can be viewed here:

 

http://faculty.edcc.edu/~tmurphy/publications.html

 

Particularly take note of what Thomas Murphy, who starred in the Living Hope Ministries video "DNA vs The Book of Mormon" had to say about the selective editing of his interviews to shield the viewer from how his research impacts evangelical-protestant viewpoints.  This was published after the video was put into circulation, see the last page of the article located here:

 

http://faculty.edcc.edu/~tmurphy/inventinggalileo.pdf

 

Peter N. Jones is a non-Mormon scholar who works for the Bauu Institute which works with Native American Genealogical Research.  He has written an excellent article which highlights the inherent "weaknesses" of recent mitochondrial DNA research.  This article is a must read and can be viewed here:

 

http://bauuinstitute.com/Articles/JonesmtDNA.pdf

 

The American Journal of Human Genetics has begun providing several articles on-line.  There are several articles that relate to various fields of DNA research which can be viewed here:

 

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/available.html

 

The Independence Examiner has published several letters to the editor on this controversy.  There have been more than the ones included below, but these are a sample and can be viewed here:

 

http://examiner.net/stories/052504/ope_052504028.shtml

http://examiner.net/stories/060104/ope_060104013.shtml

http://examiner.net/stories/060904/ope_060904016.shtml

http://examiner.net/stories/061404/ope_061404022.shtml

http://examiner.net/stories/062604/ope_062604044.shtml

http://examiner.net/stories/081604/ope_081604016.shtml

 

Jewish Genetics is a webpage that provides several abstracts and article summaries to DNA related research as it impacts the origin of Jewish populations.  Go here:

 

http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/abstracts.html

 

Here is an article from Evolutionary Anthropology that is worth the read.  It mentions potential pre-Columbian source populations for Haplogroup X:

 

http://www.tracegenetics.com/Eshlemanetal2003.pdf

 

Mike Segaloff is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who maintains this webpage that touches briefly on the DNA issue:

 

http://www.the-book-of-mormon.com/dna-evidence.html

 

Here is a website that suggests evangelical-protestant critics of the Book of Mormon on these grounds need to consider how DNA research impacts their own views about creation and the biblical narratives:

 

http://www.newrevelations.com/dna_experts_attack_the_bible.htm

 

There are many more on-line articles of interest to this debate that could be cited but these should suffice and give the interested researcher a detailed introduction to this debate.  In the final analysis, what on the surface seems like a formidable challenge to the Book of Mormon from "hard science" really ends up being a strawman argument that misses the mark.  Hugh Nibley was prophetic on this score when he wrote in 1967:

 

"The normal way of dealing with the Book of Mormon 'scientifically' has been first to attribute to the Book of Mormon something it did not say, and then refute the claim by scientific statements that have not been proven.”