Mormon faith is predicated upon a simple and testable idea: ancient Hebrews traveled to the Americas and established here a civilization. Whether this is true or not can be determined by basic DNA tests. Do the peoples of America have any genetic connection to Semites from the Middle East? No - their lineage is traced back to Asia, not the Israelites. The Mormon faith is a fraud.

The LA Times reports on the effects this is having on the few Mormon faithful who are willing to pay any attention to the evidence provided by science:

For those outside the faith, the depth of the church’s dilemma can be explained this way: Imagine if DNA evidence revealed that the Pilgrims didn’t sail from Europe to escape religious persecution but rather were part of a migration from Iceland — and that U.S. history books were wrong.

Of course, if this is what the scientific evidence demonstrated, the history books would be changed and Americans would adjust. That’s the only sensible and rational course of action — so it’s precisely not the course of action for the Mormon church.

Critics want the church to admit its mistake and apologize to millions of Native Americans it converted. Church leaders have shown no inclination to do so. Indeed, they have dismissed as heresy any suggestion that Native American genetics undermine the Mormon creed.

Some longtime observers believe that ultimately, the vast majority of Mormons will disregard the genetic research as an unworthy distraction from their faith. “This may look like the crushing blow to Mormonism from the outside,” said Jan Shipps, a professor emeritus of religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, who has studied the church for 40 years. “But religion ultimately does not rest on scientific evidence, but on mystical experiences. There are different ways of looking at truth.”

Yes, science and reality are such terrible distractions from the important business of fantasy and fairy tales.

The problem is that Mormon leaders cannot acknowledge any factual errors in the Book of Mormon because the prophet Joseph Smith proclaimed it the “most correct of any book on Earth,” Southerton said in an interview. “They can’t admit that it’s not historical,” Southerton said. “They would feel that there would be a loss of members and loss in confidence in Joseph Smith as a prophet.”

If it’s not possible to admit to any errors, then it’s not possible to move on, to progress, or to improve. This renders the Mormon faith a stagnant, regressive, and ultimately worthless ideology.

Officially, the Mormon Church says that nothing in the Mormon scriptures is incompatible with DNA evidence, and that the genetic studies are being twisted to attack the church. “We would hope that church members would not simply buy into the latest DNA arguments being promulgated by those who oppose the church for some reason or other,” said Michael Otterson, a Salt Lake City-based spokesman for the Mormon church.

There are a lot of similarities between the official Mormon reaction to the facts of DNA evidence and conservative evangelical reactions to the facts of evolution: ignore, deny, lie, deceive, twist the truth, and ultimately argue that the fantastic tales of ancient texts are somehow more credible than the unambiguous truths provided by tested, verified scientific experiments.

Joseph Smith’s writings are a fraud and a hoax. It’s quite sad that so many people have been taken in by them and have allowed themselves to be duped into constructing an entire religion around them. There’s less value and historical truth in the Mormon texts than there is in the Old Testament of the Bible, and that’s already a dubious collection of ancient texts.

 

Quick Poll: Should schools teach both sides of the origin of Native Americans - the scientific version and the Mormon version?

1. No, that would be ridiculous. Only the scientifically supported explanation should be taught.
2. Yes, just like both sides of the debate over evolution should be taught.
3. I don't know.
4. I don't care.

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Read More:

• Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Will Bagley
• Mormonism
• Recent Books on American Religion