No spoof here placing LDS doctrine under the Microbial Microscope. I listened to a fascinating interview of Ed Yong, author of a new book about the microbes within us is called "I Contain Multitudes."

http://www.npr.org/2016/08/18/490432969/eating-yogurt-is-not-enough-rebalancing-the-ecosystem-of-the-microbes-within-us

First off here are two of his quotes to set the stage for an "on topic" discussion of Mormon resurrection doctrine.

We've had this long-standing idea that microbes are germs, are enemies that we need to destroy lest they destroy us. But actually we're coming to realize that many of these microbes are profoundly important for our lives. But I wanted to get across in the book that there isn't really any such thing as a good microbe or a bad microbe. They just live with us. They are our partners in life and they can often do us tremendous amounts of good. They can help to digest our food and tune our immune system and protect us from disease. But if they get in the wrong place or if our relationship with them breaks down, then they might also do us harm.

"You know, bacteria have been the rulers of the planet for most of the Earth's history, and they are still the rulers of the planet. They still govern the movements of chemicals all around the world. They are in every possible habitat. They are omnipresent, and they are hugely influential. And in many ways, our bodies, the bodies of every other animals or our cities that we are so proud of, all of these are just more habitats for bacteria and other microbes to inhabit." - Ed Yong's new book about the microbes within us is called "I Contain Multitudes."

Ok follow my logic here and make corrections/suggestions where due:

1, Our bodies are ecosystems composed of not only of flesh blood and bone but trillions of specialized microbes that balance our digestion, auto-immune system, respiration, reproduction, etc.

2. Mormon resurrection doctrine is that our bodies will rise up in perfected form without blemish or disease.

3. Does this mean microbes will also resurrect?

4. If microbes don't resurrect then digestion is not possible. If digestion is not necessary then there is no need for our entire digestive tract. Parts of our bodies have co-developed with microbes which has determined some of our very appearance.

5. So I call Mormon resurrection, heavenly messengers and sacred grove seances all bogus. Human bodies can not function and sustain life without microbes. And many of the these microbes can only survive inside human bodies.

Joseph Smith taught that every living thing will be resurrected. I learned that in a BYU religion class where the professor raised his eyebrows and said, "Celestial mosquitoes?" Everyone laughed. So yes, Cricket! There will be celestial microbes within our celestial blood. In "Answers to Gospel Questions" Joseph Fieldng Smith taught that we would have celestial blood. He also wrote that the partaking of the fruit by Adam and Eve cause a literal chemical change in their blood. Mr. Spock eyebrows...fascinating!

Father Lehi anointed and gave priesthood blessings to his family causing the bad germs to die. Of course, this is an anachronism because the concept of priesthood, with its associated healings, wouldn't be revealed until later!

That's actually a pretty good question and deserves some thought.

Why wasn't the population of the New World decimated by disease after Leif Erikson and crew spent time there, five hundred years before Columbus?

For a disease to be transmitted to the new population, it has to be present in the visitors. The Vikings sent relatively few people to the New World and they didn't stay long. They also didn't arrive until after a long sea voyage, which allowed any sick crew members to recover before they set foot on land.

Post-Columbus, explorers traveled to the New World in large groups with lots of animals. Many of the plagues that devastated the native Americans are thought to have been spread by Hernando de Soto's expedition, which included pigs. The issue of animals is important because they are often reservoirs of infection in a mutation-driven disease cycle: the animals have an illness, which mutates and is transmitted to humans. Humans get the disease and, while some die and others recover, the infection remains in the animal population, where it mutates and spreads back to humans, despite the fact that they have gotten immunity to the previous version of the disease.

Lehi and family supposedly traveled to the New World after many years, alone, traveling through the desert and then aboard a ship. Any diseases that infected the humans would have likely run their course and disappeared before the Nephites arrived in the New World. Without non-human disease reservoirs to reinfect the humans, it is unlikely that they would have carried much to infect any pre-exisiting New World dwellers. It is unclear from the Book of Mormon text what animals, if any, Lehi's party took with them.

There are excellent arguments against the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, but carrying disease from the Old World to the New World is not a strong one.

brb ~ bowing to our microbic overlords

We could probably learn a lot via urine and stool samples from the Three Nephites.

Everybody keep your eyes open for them!

Oh Dawg! Only you would say this. I laughed so hard, I was farting! I do hope the 3 Nephites remember to get their prostates checked every year as they're now over fifty. And guys, turn your heads and cough!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2016 03:24PM by BYU Boner.

slightly o/t: I follow Yong's pieces at The Atlantic--he has a great gift of making science both accessible and fascinating for us non-scientists.

It's almost time to feed the Kindle. I think some of Yong's work will be next...