The mysteries of Book of Mormon DNA - Video [14min]

[Hemidakota]

By Michael De Groote and Mike Terry

Mormon Times and Deseret News

Monday, Dec. 15, 2008

MormonTimes - The mysteries of Book of Mormon DNA

[Maya]

Interesting, I will se this later today.

[kittymac1969]

Very interesting....thank you for sharing it. :)

[Palerider]

thanks for sharing.....:)

[Heavenguard]

I agree with the theory that Mr. Woodward is putting forth here. The scenario that Woodward is illustrating is that the DNA of Lehi (and his descendants) is a of 'very very small' pool, and would have gotten lost amidst thie greater population of the already-present aboriginals. This theory, I agree, is very sound.

Woodward calls the suppositions that the Americas were (besides the Mulekites and Jaredites) uninhabited, or at least largely uninhabited, false models. I think few would otherwise think that the Americas were uninhabited. So why would there be these false models to begin with when discussing the Book of Mormon? My observation would be because it says in the Introduction that the Lamanites were the principal ancestors of the American Indians. I would suppose that this idea is based from 2 Nephi 1, which says that the covenanted land is kept secret from other nations, and that it will be their (the descendants of Lehi's) possession so long as they remain in God's commands. This asserts that the land is unknown by others, and supposes that it is not possessed by anyone else. Given that the aboriginals didn't really have a concept of possessing land, I can let that one go pretty easily, but the 'kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations' is more difficult to deal with.

For the Lamanites to be the principal ancestors of the American Indians (as in the Introduction), it would have to mean either there were few aboriginals here to begin with and Lehi and family joined them, or the greater population of aboriginals somehow lessened and the descendants of Lehi became the greater population, or the other popular speculation that there were no people in the Americas at all. 1 Nephi 12 says that Laman's descendants went forth in multitudes upon the face of the land. That paints a picture of a great population, not a small one, or at perhaps one that's well concentrated in a particular area. The dwindling that comes after that is described as one of unbelief, not numbers.

I'm certain that another argument to defend this point will arise as our scientific understanding continues to do so, but this argument in particular does little to logically persuade me. This is not a matter of faith in this instance because Mr. Woodward is using a logical, scientific argument.

[Hemidakota]

I do believe that there was no one prior to the Jaredites but after that, it was a matter of whom and when they came beside Lehites and Mulekites.