Specific works/DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography (DVD)


A FAIR Analysis of:
Specific works

Index to claims made in DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography and in associated seminar presentations

Claims made in section: Geography

Page Claim Response Author's sources

2:48

  • The speaker claims that "truth" is comprised of "spiritual evidence combined with physical evidence"

2:48

  • The speaker claims that the "founders of the gospel" were "led down some wrong roads" in their search for physical evidence of the Book of Mormon.

5:47

  • It is claimed that John Sorenson's 1985 book "An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon" has become the "bible" of the Mesoamerican theory.

11:33

  • It is claimed that the "Hill Cumorah" in New York is the "Hill Cumorah" referred to in the Book of Mormon.

Claims made in section: Joseph Smith

Page Claim Response Author's sources

2:58

  • Joseph Smith is claimed to have said that he received the information contained in the Wentworth letter "by prophecy, by the spirit"

3:55

  • Joseph said ""I was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this country, and shown who they were, where they came from, a brief sketch of their origin, their progress, their civilization, their laws, their governments. And all this happened on this continent...The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country."

4:37

  •  Author's quote: I went back and looked in Noah Webster's dictionary of the 1850's, when Joseph Smith was around, and when it said "continent," they're not talking about North and South America. OK? There's a North American continent and a South American continent in Noah Webster's dictionary.
  • "Webster's 1828 dictionary defines a ""continent"" as follows:

1. In geography, a great extent of land, not disjoined or interrupted by a sea; a connected tract of land of great extent; as the Eastern and Western continent. It differs from an isle only in extent. New Holland may be denominated a continent. Britain is called a continent, as opposed to the isle of Anglesey.

4:58

  • Joseph said in the "American Revivalist" that "The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians."

6:22

  • Joseph's mother said that he "would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent…"

8:46

  • Joseph wrote during Zion's Camp that they were "wandering over the plains of the Nephites"

13:11

  • The story of Zelph is claimed to prove that the Northeastern United States was the land of the Nephites.

16:51

  • "Eight different people" are claimed to have said that they saw "wagon loads" of plates in the Hill Cumorah in New York.

17:26

  • Joseph sent missionaries to the Lamanites.

21:41

  • Missionaries were sent to the "borders of the Lamanites."