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

DVD 2:48
  • The DVD narrator claims that "truth" is comprised of "spiritual evidence combined with physical evidence"
  • In the associated introductory seminar titled "Introduction to Book of Mormon Evidences," the presenter states that there exists a "hierarchy" by which something can be proven:

1) Scripture
2) Statements of Joseph Smith
3) Statements of the current prophet only while he is called as a prophet.

  • In order to demonstrate the proposed hierarchical order, the presenter notes that “prophets themselves are held accountable to the scriptures.”
  • Note that the “hierarchy” that is set up is designed to lead to the conclusion that the "statements of Joseph Smith" supersede the "statements of the current prophet while he is a prophet."
  • Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 3:203
  • Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places, pp. 109-110.
  • Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places, pp. 162-163.

DVD 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.
  • The true "founder" of the Gospel is Jesus Christ. We assume that the narrator meant the "founders of the Church" when he made this statement.

DVD 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.
  • The slide presentation that displays this quote omits the name of the author, Dr. John Sorenson.

DVD 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

DVD 2:58
  • Joseph Smith is claimed to have said that he received the information contained in the Wentworth letter "by prophecy, by the spirit"

DVD 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."
  • It is claimed that the reference to "this country" refers to the United States of America. One must remember that the United States was much smaller at this time.
  • Most of the Native Americans referred to resided in territories which were not part of the United States. Most of the land to the west in the 1830's was designated as "Unorganized Territory" and "Mexican Possessions."
  • See FAIR:Reviews of DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography:Joseph Smith

DVD 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.
  • Joseph died in 1844, therefore a Webster's Dictionary from the 1850's is meaningless relative to this claim.
  • 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.

  • Webster's definition of a "Eastern and Western continent" is equivalent to today's definition of "Eastern and Western hemisphere." Note the 1828 definition of "America" in the same dictionary refers to the entire North and South American landmass as a single continent:

One of the great continents, first discovered by Sebastian Cabot, June 11, O.S. 1498, and by Columbus, or Christoval Colon, Aug. 1, the same year. It extends from the eightieth degree of North, to the fifty-fourth degree of South Latitude; and from the thirty-fifth to the one hundred and fifty-sixth degree of Longitude West from Greenwich, being about nine thousand miles in length. Its breadth at Darien is narrowed to about forty-five miles, but at the northern extremity is nearly four thousand miles. From Darien to the North, the continent is called North America, and to the South, it is called South America.

DVD 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."

DVD 6:22
  • Joseph's mother said that he "would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent…"

DVD 8:46
  • Joseph wrote during Zion's Camp that they were "wandering over the plains of the Nephites"

DVD 13:11
  • The story of Zelph is claimed to prove that the Northeastern United States was the land of the Nephites.

DVD 16:51
  • "Eight different people" are claimed to have said that they saw "wagon loads" of plates in the Hill Cumorah in New York.

DVD 17:26
  • Joseph sent missionaries to the Lamanites.

DVD 21:41
  • Missionaries were sent to the "borders of the Lamanites."
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