Stop Sharing the National Geographic Article About Native DNA
Latter-day Saints LOVE to share the National Geographic article entitled, “‘Great Surprise’ —Native Americans Have West Eurasian Origins.” They see the headline and say — and I’m quoting a friend verbatim here — “Exciting to see the scientific community catch up to what the Book of Mormon has taught for hundreds of years!”
Native Americans. West Eurasian Origins. The Book of Mormon is true! Batta bing batta boom!
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. If anyone actually reads past the headline, they immediately run into some tricky information. Let’s look at THE VERY FIRST SENTENCE:
“Based on the arm bone of a 24,000-year-old Siberian youth, the research could uncover new origins for America’s indigenous peoples…”
First of all, 24,000 years ago is longer than the earth is supposed to have existed, according to Joseph Smith. In D&C 77:6 Joseph interprets a passage from Revelation to signify “the revealed will, mysteries, and the works of God; the hidden things of his economy concerning this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance, or its temporal existence.”
Okay, so maybe Joseph was wrong about that one thing. After all, he’s a mortal man. It’s not like everything he ever taught as revealed doctrine that got put into scripture comes from God! Also forget that many other prophets have taught the same thing. I mean, you can’t expect prophets to be right about everything … or anything. C’mon, give them a break!
Okay, so the arm bone they found is older than humanity and the earth itself, according to the LDS timeline. Now it gets tricker.
“Prevailing theories suggest that Native Americans are descended from a group of East Asians who crossed the Bering Sea via a land bridge perhaps 16,500 years ago, though some sites may evidence an earlier arrival…
“This study changes this idea because it shows that a significant minority of Native American ancestry actually derives not from East Asia but from a people related to present-day western Eurasians,” Willerslev said…
“While the land bridge still formed the gateway to America, the study now portrays Native Americans as a group derived from the meeting of two different populations, one ancestral to East Asians and the other related to western Eurasians, explained Willerslev, whose research was published in the November 20 edition of the journal Nature.”
Not only is the evidence older than the earth, it also predates the Book of Mormon by 13,000 — 16,000 years! This flies in the face of everything the Book of Mormon says about the American continent.
Beyond that, the article confirms the land-bridge model, not a transoceanic migration. The evidence they found was a Siberian arm bone. Why is Siberia significant? BECAUSE YOU GET TO AMERICA ON A LAND BRIDGE FROM SIBERIA.
Mormons, we get that you are desperate for any semblance of evidence for the Book of Mormon, but this article isn’t it. Do yourselves a favor and stop sharing it.
For a more in-depth view of this article by an actual geneticist, check out this post by Simon Southerton:
http://simonsoutherton.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-great-dna-surprise.html
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