DNA
Losing a Lost Tribe
The 2nd post ever on this blog was Why are the 12 Tribes of Israel important? I’ve seen some interesting documentaries, one from a Jewish-atheist journalist, Simcha Jacobovich asking Have the Lost 10 Tribes been found? (He thinks the answer is yes.) On the other hand, I just finished Simon Southerton’s book, Losing a Lost Tribe, and he […]
Joseph’s DNA test
The most exciting, newsworthy event at the 2016 Mormon History Association meetings was the announcement of the DNA test of Josephine Lyons. As the story goes, Joseph Smith had more than 30 polygamist wives. Except for Emma, none of these wives had children via Joseph. There had been a few rumored children but John Reed Hancock […]
Jefferson’s Paradoxical Views on Race
I came across an interesting documentary called Thomas Jefferson: A View from the Mountain on Netflix. I watched it because I could see it was no longer going to be streamed, and I’m glad I did. (I hope it will be available again.) While the LDS Church often gets a bad rap about the ban […]
Day 2 of MHA 2011
I absolutely love the Mormon History Association conferences. Â It is wonderful to talk to all the people that I have been writing about the past few years! Â I’ve eaten lunch with Newell Bringhurst, breakfast with Richard Bushman, and received advice from Rick Turley, Gary Bergera, Armand Mauss and Barbara Walden. Â Only John Hamer seems to […]
Book Review: Latter-Day Dissent
A few months ago, I received an advance copy of a new book by Philip Lindholm called Latter-day Dissent: At the Crossroads of Intellectual Inquiry and Ecclesiastical Authority. The book is supposed to be released on Friday by Greg Kofford Books. Lindholm interviews 5 of the “September Six”, as well as 3 others. The September […]
Science and Religion: Compatible or Not?
Ok, this is a post to tackle a few issues. #1, Bishop Rick did request a post: “Personally, I would like to see a post that shows how evolution could fit inside the Genesis account of creation. I predict a lively discussion there.” I did do a post on Evolution, but he didn’t know me […]
Similarities Between the Lemba and Lehi
The History Channel has a show called “Digging for the Truth.” In season 1, they did an episode called “The Lost Tribe of Israel”, which highlighted the Lemba Tribe in South Africa, which claims to be a Hebrew people who were displaced around 700 BC, about 100 years before Lehi left Jerusalem. I couldn’t help […]
A Radically Different Book of Mormon Geography Theory
In the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Nazi’s are looking for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. They have an image of a map burned into the hand of a Nazi scientist, so they think they know where the Ark is. However, there is a critical piece of information missing which is found […]
What’s the difference between Arabs & Persians?
Ok, I will confess that I love learning about the Middle East. I love learning more about Jews, Muslims, Arabs, etc. I have so much to learn. I’m a grad student working on some genetic studies (one of my many jobs). As part of the genetic study we are doing, we have our study participants […]
Mormon Heretic 