 | This article may present fringe theories, without giving appropriate weight to the mainstream view and explaining the responses to the fringe theories. (June 2024) |
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The relationship between genetics and the Book of Mormon is based on implicit claims in the Book of Mormon about the ancestry of indigenous American peoples, which can be evaluated through genetic research. Specifically, the Book of Mormon claims (or strongly implies) that the ancestors of some or all Native Americans were Israelites.
Scientists have developed techniques that attempt to use genetic markers to indicate the ethnic background and history of individual people. The data developed by these mainstream scientists tell us that the Native Americans have very distinctive DNA markers and that some of them are most similar, among old world populations, to the DNA of people anciently associated with the Altay Mountains area of central Asia. These evidences from a genetic perspective agree with a large body of archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic conclusions that Native American peoples' ancestors migrated from Asia at the latest 16,500–13,000 years ago.
The mainstream scientific consensus about the origin of the ancient Americans is at odds with the claims put forth in the Book of Mormon, though Mormon apologists have made efforts to reconcile these contradictions.