🌿 When Science Changes Its Mind — and Faith Is Still Standing

🌿 When Science Changes Its Mind — and Faith Is Still Standing

This post is personal.

I have a son who left the Church years ago.
Not out of rebellion.
Not because he didn’t care.

But because he was trying to be honest.

At the time, the story sounded settled.

Scientists said Native Americans came only from Siberia, crossing the Bering land bridge.
And critics said the Book of Mormon couldn’t possibly be true because the DNA didn’t match.

On top of that, my son was taught — confidently — that Joseph Smith was a pedophile.

Those two things together were enough to shake him loose.

And I don’t blame him.

🧬 What Science Said Then… and What It’s Saying Now

For years, the academic world pushed a single, clean explanation:

• One migration

• One route

• One origin

Siberia → Bering Strait → Americas
Case closed.

Anyone who questioned it was labeled fringe.

But science has a funny habit of doing this thing called learning.

Today, DNA research — especially among Eastern tribes like the Cherokee — is telling a more complicated story:

• Mediterranean haplogroups

• Middle Eastern lineages

• North African markers

• Genetic diversity that doesn’t fit a single-migration model

In other words…

The story isn’t as simple as we were told.

And it never was.

📜 The Book of Mormon Was Never Simple Either

Here’s the quiet part that rarely gets said out loud:

The Book of Mormon never claimed all Native Americans came from one group.

It describes:

• Multiple migrations

• Small groups mixing with existing populations

• Cultures blending over time

• Lineages being “lost” and “scattered”

That actually fits better with what DNA is showing now — not worse.

The problem wasn’t the Book of Mormon.

The problem was oversimplified science being treated like settled doctrine.

⚖️ About That Joseph Smith Accusation

This is the other weight my son was carrying.

He was taught — not asked to investigate, not invited to study — but told:
“Joseph Smith was a pedophile.”

That’s a heavy charge.
And it deserves something better than slogans and internet soundbites.

There are real, documented questions about plural marriage in early Mormon history.
There are also:

• Conflicting testimonies

• Late recollections

• Political motives

• Power struggles after Joseph’s death

But what often gets lost is this:

• No verified evidence of sexual relations with prepubescent children

• No contemporary criminal charges

• No legal convictions

• No consistent first-hand accounts that stand up to scrutiny

What does exist is a messy historical record — one that requires careful, honest study, not weaponized conclusions.

You don’t have to defend everything.
But you also don’t have to accept the harshest narrative as fact.

🔥 When Institutions Speak Louder Than Truth

Here’s where I’ll be gentle — but clear.

Many people didn’t leave because they hated Christ.
They left because:

• Simplified answers were presented as final truth

• Doubts were treated as betrayal

• Questions were met with fear instead of faith

When science shifts, institutions rarely apologize.
When history complicates, institutions rarely slow down.

But truth has a longer patience than institutions do.

🕊️ To My Son — and to Anyone Like Him

If you left because the story didn’t add up at the time…
You weren’t weak.
You weren’t lazy.
You weren’t deceived.

You were responding honestly to the information you had.

And now — quietly — the ground is shifting again.

Science is becoming more humble.
History is becoming more complex.
And the Book of Mormon is still sitting there, saying what it always said:

That God works with small groups.
That records get lost.
That cultures mix.
That truth doesn’t need to panic.

🌍 A Bigger, More Honest Picture

The Cherokee story — their DNA, their survival, their memory — reminds us of something important:

Human history is not a straight line.
It’s a web.

And faith that depends on fragile, oversimplified explanations
was never strong faith to begin with.

Christ doesn’t ask us to protect Him with bad arguments.
He asks us to seek truth —
even when it’s uncomfortable,
even when it takes time,
even when it means admitting we didn’t know everything.

🌿 Final Thought

If you walked away because the answers felt dishonest —
you might find that the deeper story is finally catching up to you.

Not to pull you back into an institution.
But to invite you back into truth.

Slowly.
Honestly.
Without fear.