Rodney Meldrum has enlisted a guy named Jake Hilton to spread the Heartland message to the youth. He runs a Facebook page called "Mormon Evidence". I commented on one of Jakes's posts about a recent paper on Native American DNA. The paper was co-authored by 18 scientists including 2 Mormons. This is Jake's response. Not surprisingly, Meldrum and Hilton have no scientific qualifications.

https://www.facebook.com/MormonEvidence

"All those scientists, including the two Mormon ones, are wrong. And why are they wrong? Because of their belief in the theory of evolution. They continue to use theory-based dating, assuming that there was a human/chimp split roughly 200,000 years ago (when they weren't there and didn't observe it happen). This 'split' is nothing but their assumption, based entirely on an idea that is simply false. The entire theory of evolution is false.

It is the scriptures that are true. The Bible and the Book of Mormon need to be our absolute authority. They are God's inspired Word to man, given as instruction and law to teach us, guide us, and lead us back to our Father in Heaven. The truths they teach are infallible, unalterable and timeless. Through His chosen prophets, God has declared that He created the world and all things in it, that He created our father Adam, who was the first man of all men. The Word teaches us that it was Adam that brought death into the world through his sin, and that since the Fall, only 6,000 or so years have passed.

6,000 years. Not 15,000 years. Not 200,000 years. And certainly not 4.56 billion years.

This has been proven by using reality-based dating methods of the DNA. "Mitochondrial Eve," the one woman all human beings descend from, lived only 6,000 years ago (Gibbons, A. 1998. Calibrating the Mitochondrial Clock. Science. 279 (5347):28-29)--confirming God's Word as being the truth. I do not care what the ungodly, atheistic philosophers and scientists say how old the world is or when Haplogroup X2 DNA entered the Americas. They're wrong.

I also do not care if all the world combines against me, the truth is still the truth. Majority opinion never has nor never will dictate what is real truth. As Mahatma Gandhi said: "An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody will see it. ... Even if you are in a minority of one, the truth is still the truth."

Evolution is not science--meaning what can be tested and observed and demonstrated. It is a belief. It is based entirely on faith. People choose to believe in it because they love removing God from their lives, and with Him the knowledge that they will one day be held accountable to their Maker for the wicked choices they've made and the perverse lives they've lived. But we have the truth. All will stand before God to be judged, whether you believe in Him or not"

If you have the stomach and energy, please comment on the crazy stuff on the Mormon Evidence Facebook page. He's getting too many positive messages from the blind.

That was interesting Simon, and very sad. What could you possibly say to a person with that mind set? (Or their minions?) I can suffer small children, but foolish adults? Sorry, no stomach or energy for it.

I don't know that the light hitting the ground came from the sun. I wasn't there to see it created 8 minutes ago. All that light might have come from somewhere else. And if it might have come from somewhere else, it did come from somewhere else, and that place is clearly Kolob. Therefore scripture has been proven right again.

Meldrum and Hilton are idiots.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2013 07:56AM by Brother Of Jerry.

[...a human/chimp split roughly 200,000 years ago...]


Wow, they really are ignorant. Perhaps they should try reading some non-fiction DNA studies to at least understand what other scientists are saying. The human/chimp split occurred at least 4-6 million years ago (MYA), with a 2012 study asserting 7-13 MYA.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnfarrell/2012/12/07/scientists-reset-the-molecular-clock-for-human-origins/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2013 10:53AM by facsimile3.

The great thing about the Great Lakes/Central America debate is that (since it really didn't take place anywhere) it opens up the door for showing compelling evidence that the BoM could have taken place in Cambodia, Thailand, Egypt, Saskatchewan, Zimbabwe, Central Park, or Nordstrum's....

... or the moon, dressed like quakers

"The Bible and the Book of Mormon need to be our absolute authority"

*Facepalm*

I thought all Christians believed that God created us. Meldrum is different in that he believes in young earth creationism as opposed to God creating humans through evolution which I suppose would be called evolutionary creationism.

"This has been proven by using reality-based dating methods of the DNA. "Mitochondrial Eve," the one woman all human beings descend from, lived only 6,000 years ago."

WTF? I've read multiple journal articles on this, and they all put "mitochondrial Eve" at 150-200K years ago. How does he throw away all the "reality-based" archeology and dating of physical artifacts?

Chump Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "This has been proven by using reality-based
> dating methods of the DNA. "Mitochondrial Eve,"
> the one woman all human beings descend from, lived
> only 6,000 years ago."
>
> WTF? I've read multiple journal articles on this,
> and they all put "mitochondrial Eve" at 150-200K
> years ago. How does he throw away all the
> "reality-based" archeology and dating of physical
> artifacts?

When DNA dating was being perfected at the end of the last century there was considerable debate about the methods used to calculate mutation rates. One paper (now rejected by everyone) published back in 1998 gave a range of mutation rates, the most extreme of which fit with Meldrum's preconceived ideas. Thats the only paper he cites now.

My contribution:

"This is satire, right? Like The Onion. This is great stuff BTW. It's almost impossible to read it and not think that you really believe what you're saying. My hat's off you you, sir."

I watched one of Meldrum's films where he doesn't really talk about the Book of Mormon but just tries to make it seem like a non-biased documentary on the history of native americans and how their true history was covered up by racists. The fact that it is pretty racist to claim that native americans were to backwards to build such impressive monuments and so it must have been jewish people seems to be lost on him. The whole film was a total mess.

But to your point, the best part was towards the end where they drop the bombshell that haplogroup X DNA is found in native americans and is also found in middle eastern peoples. Then Meldrum comes on and talks about how using his alternative dating technique he discovered that the two groups separated in 600 BC. There was no explanation of what this alternative technique is or why it is better. He does admit that other scientists disagree and believe it was 12,000 years ago, but he dismisses them because, "those are people who believe the earth is billions of years old." He even laughed after he said that as if the idea that the earth is billions of years old is the most absurd thing anyone could believe. I was watching this with a group of TBMs and they all gasped when this revelation came out. Their testimonies were all strengthened that night that the Book of Mormon is true.

"Evolution is not science--meaning what can be tested and observed and demonstrated. It is a belief. It is based entirely on faith. People choose to believe in it because they love removing God from their lives...."

And with that he just shot himself in the foot, completely obliterated the basis for his whole mormon belief system and showed himself to be an idiot.

It wasn't any "anti-Mormon" literature that broke my faith. It was the insistence of official Mormon teachings that there was "no death before the Fall," officially dated at less than 6,000 years ago. Once I was able to convince myself that such an assertion is untenable in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence (forget carbon-14 dating--you can manually count the varve layers [annually deposited] in existing lakes under which are buried the remains of plants and animals, for instance) my "testimony" crumbled.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2013 12:17PM by Fetal Deity.