Posted on 03/18/2006 9:48:03 AM PST by Cato1
From the time he was a child in Peru, the Mormon Church instilled in Jose 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. ... 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.
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.
According to the LDS, an angel named Moroni led Joseph Smith in 1827 to a divine set of golden plates buried in a hillside near his New York home. God provided the 22-year-old Smith with a pair of glasses and seer stones that allowed him to translate the "Reformed Egyptian"writings on the golden plates into the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Mormons believe these scriptures restored the church to God's original vision and left the rest of Christianity in a state of apostasy.
The book's narrative focuses on a tribe of Jews who sailed from Jerusalem to the New World in 600 B.C. and split into two main warring factions. The God-fearing Nephites were "pure" (the word was officially changed from "white" in 1981) and "delightsome." The idol-worshiping Lamanites received the "curse of blackness," turning their skin dark. According to the Book of Mormon, by 385 A.D. the dark-skinned Lamanites had wiped out other Hebrews.
(Excerpt) Read more at concordmonitor.com ...
DNA never lies ping...
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No headdress. They'll have to wear one of these.
An apropo choice of words.
Main Entry: ter·rif·ic
Pronunciation: t&-'ri-fik
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin terrificus, from terrEre to frighten
1 a : very bad : FRIGHTFUL b : exciting or fit to excite fear or awe
I was not standing in judgement. I was merely pointing out that all or most of the evidence for Smith's claims may have been destroyed.
You beat me to the punch, Mark.
American Indians massacred whole tribes, keeping a few women and children for slaves, sometimes.
The Iroquois were notorious for their cruelty to other tribes.
PaxMacian sounded VERY judgmental to me. I don't see any correlation to "Smith's claims" in his reply, just a diatribe (pun intended) against "Washington and others."
The American Indians MOSTLY got whupped by disease brought in from outside. And no, small pox is NOT a "white man's" disease; it's a disease from OUTSIDE the Americas. Imagine if the explorers had been Chinese or African. Small pox STILL would've annihilated the Indians...plus even more from those respective countries.
In any case, the American Indians were Stone Age and were conquered by the Iron Age invadess/explorers.
If the moccasin were on the other foot, the Indians would've done the same thing....only with scalping perhaps.
There's a sect of Christianity in India where Jesus DIDN'T die on the cross at Calvary but traveled to India, married, had children and taught His Messianic message there to the Indians.
My ex- is CONVINCED that somewhere in India there's a sect worshipping a '56 Chevy.
No, it doesn't. If the Book of Mormon claimed to be a scientific book, but it doesn't. In the end, it is accepted on faith. Just like the Bible. I have not placed my faith on DNA or archeological finds. There are a lot of interesting finds that have occurred in the last few years, but again, my testimony is not based on those things.
Don't you think that if Washington had destroyed all the jewish indians, that God would have revealed that to Joseph Smith?
Common sense is your friend.
ROFL!
bookmark for later.
A certain kind of religious mind is completely undeterred by facts or common sense. DNA evidence won't be accepted by Mormon true believers any more than it will be accepted by our 'BritAm' FReepers.
Ping, after I go to the concession stand...
Well, it may indeed have been the root of the word, but that's not the way I meant it. Thanks for the etymology lesson, BTW...
So, if you can't prove scriptural claims by scientific evidence, that means that claim is false? Tread carefully, Bible believers, because scientific evidence is not especially kind to Biblical claims either. Or maybe you can point to hard scientific evidence of a worldwide flood. Have scientists found the Noah haplotype through which, according to the Bible, all modern people descend? If you believe claims that 30,000 year old DNA refutes the Book of Mormon, what does that do to the Adam claim? Since there's no scientific proof of the presence of Israelites in Egypt or of their migration across the Sinai, does that mean it didn't happen? Scientists also dispute any evidence of an extensive David/Solomon kingdom in the middle east--according to your standard, that means it didn't happen? Was Christ not resurrected because there is no objective scientific proof it happened?
Or do you think it is all right to use scientific evidence, especially negative (can't prove it) evidence to refute only those religious claims with which you don't believe? Be consistent. If Mormonism lives or dies according to current scientific evidence, then Christianity as a whole should do so also.
Faith means just that. It requires faith and that means science will never, in this mortal existence, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that religion is true or false because then faith is not necessary.
Blasphamy! The '47 Chevy is much more righteous! /just kidding
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