Does DNA Really Disprove the Book of Mormon?
Many critics claim that DNA evidence has disproved the Book of Mormon. But is that really what the science says? According to molecular biologist Michael F.
Did you know that some people say DNA evidence disproves the Book of Mormon, but the science says otherwise? The biggest reason, the Book of Mormon never claims to be the history of all ancient peoples in the Americas. President Russell M. Nelson explained that the Book of Mormon is not a record of all former inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, but only of particular groups of people.
Many people assume the Book of Mormon teaches that all Native Americans descended exclusively from Book of Mormon peoples. It doesn't. And once you understand that, many of the DNA objections begin to make a lot more sense. According to molecular biologist Michael F. Whiting, here are six reasons DNA has not disproved the Book of Mormon. Number one, the Book of Mormon begins with a very small founding group.
Lehi's family arrived in the Americas as only a handful of people. When a small group mixes with much larger populations over many generations, tracing their DNA thousands of years later becomes extremely difficult. Number two, DNA lineages can disappear. Scientists call this genetic drift. Over time, entire genetic markers can vanish from a population even when descendants remain.
Number three, population bottlenecks happen. Wars, disease, famine, and natural disasters can dramatically reduce populations. When that happens, some genetic lineages survive while others disappear forever. Number four, genealogical ancestry and genetic ancestry are not the same thing. You have thousands of ancestors from just a few hundred years ago, but you carry DNA from only a fraction of them.
You can be descended from someone and inherit none of their identifiable DNA. Number five, scientists do not have DNA from Book of Mormon people. Nobody has DNA from Lehi, Nephi, Mormon, or Moroni. Without a known reference sample, it is impossible to know exactly what Lehigh DNA would look like today. And number six, DNA can show who is present, but it is much harder to prove who is absent.
Modern DNA studies show that Native Americans are primarily descended from ancient Asian populations. Most Latter-day Saint scholars accept that the real question is whether a small Neareastern group could have been absorbed into a much larger population thousands of years ago. According to many population geneticists, the answer is yes. Now, none of this proves the Book of Mormon is true, but it does show that the claim that DNA has completely disproved the Book of Mormon is far weaker than many people assume.
This insight comes from research by fair, a nonprofit organization that has spent nearly 30 years answering tough questions about the
