DNA good for research, but won't prove Book of Mormon

PROVO, Utah — There is no way to prove or disprove theories of people who criticize the Book of Mormon's authenticity based on DNA testing, but genetics sometimes can be helpful in current family-history research, according to a forensic DNA scientist.John Butler told hundreds of people during a series of lectures at Brigham Young University's annual Campus Education Week that there is no known reference sample from which to draw any genetic data about people chronicled in the Book of Mormon. Butler said he has worked with the U.S. government for the past 15 years to improve forensic DNA testing worldwide.The Book of Mormon is "not descriptive enough (regarding ancestral origin) to provide definitive calibration points with which to make confident scientific conclusions," he said, labeling the claims of critics as "pseudo science."He described how the genetic pool of Native Americans has changed drastically during the past several centuries, as Europeans introduced diseases that killed up to 20 million, or an estimated 95 percent of the native population, nearly wiping out the lineage of those who inhabited the Americas before European colonization.Ancestry tests available today include the Y-chromosome that documents genetic traits passed from father to son, and mitochondrial DNA, which is transferred from mothers to children. Neither test provides a full picture of past lineage, he said. Only selected ancestors appear through such testing, "unless you happen to know someone who is a direct-line ancestor," and the Book of Mormon doesn't give enough detail about family relationships to make those correlations.Critics of the book "confuse deep ancestry DNA testing (which examines migration patterns of large population groups over time) with genetic genealogy testing (which helps connect individuals genetically to related individuals), and they are very different," he said, including the methods used to arrive at assumptions or conclusions about the data."The press and the public (use DNA data) to extrapolate beyond what is scientifically possible or appropriate" and draw inaccurate conclusions, he said.Family history research is the quest to link people with a common ancestor, and while DNA testing may help verify some family relationships, it is limited in that the genetic signatures of many ancestors "will never be seen with genetic testing" because of its limitations, Butler said.Those who are looking to have their DNA tested can see a comparison of the various companies that perform those tests, online at www.isogg.org, the Web site for the International Society of Genetic Genealogy. "Look to see whether it's worth your time and money."

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