<p>Tonight on Mormonism Live, we tackle one of the most persistent and uncomfortable questions in modern Mormon scholarship: What does DNA actually say about the Book of Mormon? Our guest is Dr. Thomas W. Murphy, anthropologist, award-winning scholar, and author of Unsettling Scripture: Iroquois and the Book of Mormon. Dr. Murphy’s latest presentation, “DNerAsure: Unsettling Science &amp; Scripture” DNerAsure &#8211; Unsettling Science, challenges both apologetic narratives and oversimplified dismissals of the DNA debate. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f52c.png" alt="🔬" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p> <p>What We Discuss<br>The acknowledged lack of Middle Eastern DNA in ancient and modern Indigenous American populations<br>Why the science is not “settled” in the way many assume<br>The apologetic argument that Book of Mormon DNA may have “disappeared” over time<br>Why autosomal DNA makes total genetic erasure extraordinarily implausible<br>The limited geography model and why it does not solve the DNA problem The ethics of Indigenous DNA collection — including BYU’s controversial accumulation of Indigenous genetic samples<br>The concept of a “Galileo Event” and whether Mormonism is approaching one How racialized readings of scripture intersect with real Indigenous identities</p>