Science Opens Mormon Eyes

[Doug]

(http://www.latimes.com/)
(http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... -headlines)

Los Angeles Times

Bedrock of a Faith Is Jolted: DNA tests contradict Mormon scripture. By William Lobdell, Times Staff Writer

February 16, 2006

From the time he was a child in Peru, the Mormon Church instilled in Jose A. Loayza the conviction that he and millions of other Native Americans were descended from a lost tribe of Israel that reached the New World more than 2,000 years ago.

"We were taught all the blessings of that Hebrew lineage belonged to us and that we were special people," said Loayza, now a Salt Lake City attorney. "It not only made me feel special, but it gave me a sense of transcendental identity, an identity with God."

A few years ago, Loayza said, his faith was shaken and his identity stripped away by DNA evidence showing that the ancestors of American natives came from Asia, not the Middle East.

"I've gone through stages," he said. "Absolutely denial. Utter amazement and surprise. Anger and bitterness."

For Mormons, the lack of discernible Hebrew blood in Native Americans is no minor collision between faith and science. It burrows into the historical foundations of the Book of Mormon, a 175-year-old transcription that the church regards as literal and without error.

[body of article snipped]

Phil Ormsby, a Polynesian who lives in Brisbane, Australia, grew up believing he was a Hebrew.

"I visualized myself among the fighting Lamanites and lived out the
fantasies of the [Book of Mormon] as I read it," Ormsby said. "It gave me great mana [prestige] to know that these were my true ancestors."

The DNA studies have altered his feelings completely.

"Some days I am angry, and some days I feel pity," he said. "I feel pity for my people who have become obsessed with something that is nothing but a hoax."

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

The Fundie Mormons will have no problem - they'll just deny the DNA evidence. However, considering how small that lost tribe must have been, it may be possible that they went east and were pretty much absorbed into the Asian tribes that crossed the landbridge into North America and became what we now call Native Americans. I don't know enough about DNA testing to know if the Middle Eastern genes would still show up after being diluted through 100 or more generations of Asian marriages. The real problem with the Mormon story is Native Americans, by whatever name, got here over 20,000 years ago, long before Jews were invented.

[Savonarola]

The only Mormon I know personally, who happens to be an extremely intelligent fellow, when given a summary of South Park's cynical, mocking explanation of the origin of the Mormon faith, agreed with said explanation. That is, he's well aware that his faith makes no sense. *shrug*

Doug, one of these days we're going to get you to use [url] tags for your links. Start by reading these links:
faq.php?mode=bbcode#8
viewtopic.php?t=14
viewtopic.php?p=6#6
Also keep in mind that just pasting the URL without adding parentheses or anything else will result in it automatically getting formatted into a link.

[Doug]

Doug, one of these days we're going to get you to use [url] tags for your links. Start by reading these links:
faq.php?mode=bbcode#8
viewtopic.php?t=14
viewtopic.php?p=6#6

DOUG
OK, I read the links. They didn't seem very interesting, except for the "faq.php" part. The beginnings of them look the same. Maybe some people like them for the different endings.

Also keep in mind that just pasting the URL without adding parentheses or anything else will result in it automatically getting formatted into a link.

DOUG
OK, that's fine.

[Savonarola]

OK, I read the links. They didn't seem very interesting, except for the "faq.php" part. The beginnings of them look the same. Maybe some people like them for the different endings.

Yeah yeah...
Mainly, I want to have people remember to do the "short links" trick so that we don't have really wide pages (like when someone would post a big URL on NWApolitics). But it also makes it easier for the readers if they just have to click instead of copy and paste.