At FAIR, D. Jeffrey Meldrum poses a few interesting ideas about the DNA evidences that counter the BoM and LDS profits.
See http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferenc...
Meldrum writes:
A superficial consideration of the Book of Mormon account has led to misconceptions ... that all Native Americans are Lehi's direct descendants. ...The notion has arisen that modern DNA research will either vindicate or refute the Book of Mormon
One theory he gives is that the current native american population is indeed from Bering Strait migrations, but not migrations of 10,000 years ago, rather from recent migrations. He quotes:
Michael Crawford, from the Department...
In this statement perhaps Meldrum is finding evidence that genetic drift or dilution ocurred for Lehi's descendants because of the influx of Siberian immigrants through modern times.
Perhaps. But the BoM plainly testifies of the following that counter this hypothesis (bear with me):
1) That the Jaredites arose out of a people who were scattered from the tower of babel (Ether 1: ) after the flood, which LDS doctrine holds as a true event (Alma 10:22, Moses 7:43-51)
2) That the Jaredites inherited the Americas solely, meaning that there was no one else here (led to a land "where never had man been" (Ether 2:5).)
3) That they lived and died, to the last man, Coriantumr (Ether 15, Omni 1:21)
4) That Lehi believed they were alone in the Americas, "it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations" (2 Ne. 1:8)
5) There are many verses in the BoM with similar prophecies/teachings about America being saved from the wicked/gentiles (1 Ne 13, 2 Ne 3:2, 2 Ne 10:10-12, 3 Ne 20:14...)
6) Lehi and descendants believed because of their "inheritance covenant" that no others except the chosen would be led to the land, "for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance." (2 Ne: 1:8), that America will be saved and "none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord" (2 Ne 1:6 -- see v. 5-9).
Okay, given these, it is hard to believe that Mormon doctrine holds that:
a) any other significant migration to the Americas occurred before Columbus (1 Ne 13-14)
b) no pre-flood populations existed on the America continents
So, if Meldrum is correct, that the reason for Asiatic DNA in the Americas is because there have been migrations across the Bering Strait since the flood, then we should find no evidence of pre-flood asiatic migrations in existing cultures today.
He also writes:
We propose that the Book of Mormon is...
And
The necessary experiment simply cannot be designed that would refute the historicity of the Book of Mormon, as the record of a small, isolated population, on the basis of DNA studies and population genetics.
Is this post-flood Siberian migration and subsequent genetic dilution of BoM peoples a good argument? Not really. For example, a 2006 study reports DNA-based research linking DNA retrieved from a single 10,000-year-old fossilized tooth from an Alaskan island, with existing, specific coastal tribes in Tierra del Fuego, Ecuador, Mexico, and California. Unique DNA markers found in the fossilized tooth were found only in these limited and specific coastal tribes, and were not comparable to markers found in any other indigenous peoples in the Americas. (Ref: “Genetic analysis of early Holocene skeletal remains from Alaska and its implications for the settlement of the Americas”, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 132(4), 605-621 (2007).)
Note, also, that the DNA testing done in this 2006 study is so sensitive that it linked a singe person (DNA from a fossilized tooth) to specific, living people across two contintents, 10,000 years later.
How could these tribes be related to a specific pre-flood Siberian person, if they were wiped out in the flood? Wiped out so that Jared and all of his kin could inherit this land solely?
Do Meldrum and other mopologists really contend that we will never find semitic DNA because our testing isn't sensitive enough?
Some LDS mopologists also contend that X haplogroups could be evidence of Hebrew descent. The X haplogroup was found in the remains of ancient American bodies that had died about 15,000 years ago and in others who lived over 8000 years ago in Florida, predating even the Jaredites by several thousand years. Recently, the same X-group factor has been found in Asian (Siberia and India) lineages as well, providing ample evidence that it may have easily passed with Bering Strait migrations (whether pre or post flood, doesn't matter).
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