Jeremy Runnells has released his rebuttal letter to FAIR. I had the opportunity of reading through the final draft a few weeks ago while Jeremy was working on the last sections and I can say that I found no errors; his logic and reasoning are exceptional – and the historical accuracy cannot be faulted. FAIR’s feeble attempts at obfuscating the truth with obvious lies and deceptions that the Church and its apologists still use (and FAIR used in their original rebuttal), fall one by one like dominoes until there is nothing left to argue. The truth is plain and simple – lies are lies no matter how they are packaged. There are no excuses left for the Church. The more games the apologists play, the more foolish they look. CES Letter.
Month: February 2014
17 February 2014
Christopher Ralph: “Just to make it clear, every penny spent on this private criminal prosecution to date has come from Tom’s own pocket. I understand he has already spent something like £60k to £70k on this, as well as many hundreds of hours of his time. It will be seen then that this is NOT a cheap publicity stunt, but the sincere effort of a man who has witnessed first hand how the church operates on the inside, (Tom was exec sec to the Area Presidency), to expose what appear to him to be criminal offences under the terms of the 2006 Fraud Act.”
Further details on the case are located here.
7 February 2014
Joint statement issued by Chris Ralph and Steve Bloor explaining the motivation behind the Monson law suit. Full document available here.
February 2014
An interesting article recently appeared in Newsweek, regarding people leaving Mormonism in the Salt Lake valley. When Saints Go Marching Out.
********************
Book of Mormon and DNA Studies. The Church has issued the next in its series of essays, this time addressing DNA and the Book of Mormon. This new essay is the most damning yet, destroying all credibility (if there ever was any) of Mormon claims in its sheer stupidity. There is no answer they can give to the evidence that DNA provides, so instead, the article is full of nonsense excuses as to why the correct DNA in support of the BOM cannot be located. Remember, once upon a time everyone in the Church, all of us, from its prophets down, believed that all Native Americans were descended from people of Middle Eastern origin.
The article immediately admits that “the majority of DNA identified to date in modern native peoples most closely resembles that of eastern Asian populations.” It goes downhill with the wind after that, trying to blind members with science which many will not readily understand.
With nowhere else to go, and clutching at straws, they then use another tactic, claiming that Lehi’s DNA type is unknown and therefore cannot be determined from studies of Native Americans anyway. “One reason it is difficult to use DNA evidence to draw definite conclusions about Book of Mormon peoples is that nothing is known about the DNA that Lehi, Sariah, Ishmael, and others brought to the Americas.” They claim, therefore, that geneticists would not know what to look for. On the surface, that clever little ploy may seem convincing to some Mormons. Unfortunately for the Church, we do know the supposed lineage of Lehi and others the Book of Mormon claims migrated to the Americas. It is all in the Book of Mormon. However, whilst the article then admits original locations, it claims that maybe “some of them carried DNA more typical of other regions.” It goes on… maybe there was a ‘population bottleneck’ or a ‘genetic drift’ – anything to obfuscate the unbearable truth; that the Book of Mormon is simply a nineteenth century work of pure fiction – irrespective of DNA evidence.
The excuses and suppositions eventually peter out and the conclusion claims: “Much as critics and defenders of the Book of Mormon would like to use DNA studies to support their views, the evidence is simply inconclusive. Nothing is known about the DNA of Book of Mormon peoples. Even if such information were known, processes such as population bottleneck and genetic drift make it unlikely that their DNA could be detected today. As Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles observed, “It is our position that secular evidence can neither prove nor disprove the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.””
In other words, they are claiming that we don’t know either way, and even if we did, it still wouldn’t prove anything. Of course, in reality, they would shout long and loud that it did prove something, if the ‘correct’ DNA were to be discovered. But, it is currently the only stand they can take, in light of what is actually compelling evidence against the Church and its bogus claims.
My friend, Dr. Simon Southerton, covered all this in his book ‘Losing a Lost Tribe’.
LDS ESSAY: Book of Mormon and DNA Studies.
Please also see MormonThink facebook page notes and the link to Simon Southerton’s earlier notes. The question posed about populating the Americas, following the fictional flood, remains unanswerable by the Church which retains the ludicrous belief that it was a real event. Mormon apostle, Jeff Holland, makes huge scientific mistakes in his outrageous claims.
From Mormon Think’s above referenced note, comes the devastating revelation from Jeff Holland (also found in Simon’s article), whose claims are scientifically insane. There is absolutely no escape from the absurdity of Holland’s claims, or of their deviation from the latest Church stance on DNA either. Game over! (Unless you are a Mormon leader or apologist, when it is simply time to move the goalposts yet again, claim that black is white, and start again from there).
“The essay contends that there were other inhabitants in the Americas before the BOM people arrived. The essay does not address many statements from the Church and scriptures that contradict this.
Many General Authorities have written about how no one was in the Americas before the BOM people. Here’s remarks from Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland (A Promised Land, The Ensign, June 1976). [emphasis added]:
“Holy scripture records that “after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord; wherefore the Lord would have that all men should serve him who dwell upon the face thereof.” (Ether 13:2.) Such a special place needed now to be kept apart from other regions, free from the indiscriminate traveler as well as the soldier of fortune. To guarantee such sanctity the very surface of the earth was rent. In response to God’s decree, the great continents separated and the ocean rushed in to surround them. The promised place was set apart. Without habitation it waited for the fulfillment of God’s special purposes.
With care and selectivity, the Lord began almost at once to repeople the promised land. The Jaredites came first, with stories of the great flood fresh in their memories and the Lord’s solemn declaration ringing in their ears: “Whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fullness of his wrath should come upon them.” (Ether 2:8.)
A Promised Land
By Jeffrey R. Holland
Nor does it mention how these other people survived the Global Flood from the time of Noah, which the Church teaches as a literal event.”
For Holland to be right, all Native American DNA must converge to singular sources entering the Americas post 2300 BCE, irrespective of original locations – and it doesn’t, conclusively proving the flood to be nothing more than mythological, before even starting on the other evidence!
The earlier article from Simon, at MormonThink, for which there are still no answers, is well worth revisiting; and well exposed, ‘MormonThink’! Jeff Holland (as well as a number of other Mormon leaders) got everything wrong. Ultimately, the Church will be obliged to admit that – but will of course claim they were only human. Any excuse will do.
Finally, this is a MUST READ artcle DNA Part 1, by David Twede. There is nowhere left for the Church to go, other than to admit the entire hoax.
Save the above link, as DNA Part 2 will be added by David shortly.
(Feb 4th: DNA Part 2 is now available).
Meanwhile, Simon Southerton has now updated his blog with his own response. This is another MUST READ (from a professional), so please do take the time to do so – then walk away from the Church and its continued conspiray to deceive, if you haven’t already done so. There is nothing left to have faith in; eatablished facts completely expose the hoax.
“No scientist outside of Mormon culture believes that Middle Eastern populations migrated to the Americas prior to Columbus.”
“It is also ridiculous to claim that we know nothing about the likely DNA lineages of the Book of Mormon founders. They came from the Middle East and most were genealogically Hebrew. They would have carried Middle Eastern or Hebrew DNA lineages, which are well characterised.”
“The Book of Mormon makes scientifically testable claims that science has continuously shown to have no basis in fact. The DNA evidence has exposed the true ancestry of Native Americans with amazing clarity and also, unfortunately for the LDS Church, the dubious history of the Book of Mormon.”
Jim Whitefield 