JOSEPH SMITH HISTORY: “He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people. He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang.” –Joseph Smith, History, verses 33-34. [source]
CHURCH ESSAY: “The evidence assembled to date suggests that the majority of Native Americans carry largely Asian DNA. Scientists theorize that in an era that predated Book of Mormon accounts, a relatively small group of people migrated from northeast Asia to the Americas by way of a land bridge that connected Siberia to Alaska. These people, scientists say, spread rapidly to fill North and South America and were likely the primary ancestors of modern American Indians.” –Book of Mormon and DNA Studies, Gospel Topics, lds.org. [source]
COMMENTARY: Mormonism was false before it ever started, but in Joseph Smith’s day nobody knew where the Native Americans came from. It took a while before scientists would figure out that the indigenous populations of the Americas all came from Asia across the Siberian land bridge. Now that we know it, though, you have a choice to make. You can continue to be a science denier, or you can admit that, while perhaps at best a beautiful story, Joseph’s explanation of the origins of Native Americans is nothing more than religious myth. And here’s a pro tip for the future: if an angel from God doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he probably isn’t really an angel from God. But what do I know? I’m just another apostate.
