Could Lehi Have Rounded the Cape and Sailed the Atlantic Ocean? – Part II

Continued from the previous post regarding a critic’s comments about our suggested route for Lehi to reach the Land of Promise via the Southern Ocean.
    Comment: “They [History Channel] famously use this model to demonstrate how the BoM could not be corroborated by science.”
    Response: In order to make a claim about someone not knowing about science, you need to know about science yourself. The above comment shows how little people and the History Channel know about simple science. As an example, they aired a program “Ape to Man: Evolution Documentary History Channel” (September 30, 2016), claiming evolution took place. They also aired a documentary series on “Ancient Aliens,” in 2010, about ancient astronauts landing on Earth. They also aired a program: “How the Earth Was Made,” December 2007) showing as 4.5 billion year old Earth and its various so-called geologic periods.
    As for reality, the Jaredites spent 444 days in their barges, taking sufficient food and water with them to last all that time. Thor Heyerdahl spent almost four months at sea without landing for replenishment of food or water and all were strong and healthy when they reached the Tuamotus in Polynesia.
    Comment: “Furthermore the Central and South American Natives do not have any Mediterranean DNA.”

Response: Neither do the ancient Israelites—their Hebrew DNA would have been Mesopotamia, where Noah landed and settled and through his second great grandson, Eber (Noah, Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, Eber). On the other hand, according to an "official" statement by the Church on the lds.org website, "Much as critics and defenders of the Book of Mormon would like to use DNA studies to support their views, the evidence is simply inconclusive. Nothing is known about the DNA of Book of Mormon peoples. Even if such information were known, processes such as population bottleneck, genetic drift, and post-Columbian immigration from West Eurasia make it unlikely that their DNA could be detected today."
    Comment: “North Eastern American Natives notoriously are genetically indistinguishable from European and Mediterranean DNA groups.”
    Response: Hebrew/Israelites of antiquity were neither European nor Mediterranean, nor does any knowledgeable person make a claim that North American Natives specifically were Lehi’s descendants other than North American theorists.
    Comment: “And irregardless…”
    Response: While “irregardless” is used strictly in regional or social variety of a language (dialectal), it is a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the existing culture. In other words, “irregardless” is not a word in the English language. The word is “regardless” or “irrespective.” One might want to get a spell-check program for their computer.
    Comment: “[Regardless that] Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery first took the BoM to the Laminate remnants by commandment from the Lord.”
    Response: The first missionaries to the American Indians by the Church was in 1830, just after the “Indian Removal Act” which sent displaced natives to the present-day areas of Kansas and Oklahoma, thus, the first missionaries planned to go west from Independence, Missouri, into what was then called “Indian Territory.” The revelatory commandment came while they were in Fayette, New York, and on their way west to Independence, they stopped among the Seneca Indians, but soon continued on into Ohio where they accomplished a lot of success to their missionary effort. The Indian Territory at the time was the closest Indian area to the new Church, filled with American natives who had been displaced from the southeast. To have gone to Central or South America at the time would have been quite costly, with transportation there very difficult, and the area dangerous because of the ongoing wars of independence in South America.
    Comment: “The Laminates that the Lord spoke of were in the area around the Great Lakes.”
    Response: As stated above, the Indians referred to, spoken of, and proselyted, were in the “Indian Territory” to the west, in Kansas and Oklahoma. This is where the first missionaries went after two important stops.

Calling received in Fayette, New York, to go to the Lamanites; on the way, stopped among the Seneca Indians; then on to Mentor, Kirtland and North Union (Shakers), Ohio; then to Independence Missouri; then across into Indian Territory (northeast Kansas) near the junction of the Missouri and Kansas rivers to the Delaware Indians

In fact, Parley P. Pratt wrote that while still in New York, the four missionaries called on “an Indian [Seneca] nation at or near Buffalo; and spent part of a day with them, instructing them in the knowledge of the record of their forefathers.” They then went westward toward Kansas, but stopped in Mentor, Ohio, where they spoke to Sydney Rigdon, Pratt’s former friend and mentor. After a few discussions, Rigdon and many others were baptized, and, as Pratt wrote: “the news of the discovery of the Book of Mormon and the marvelous events connected with it” created a general “interest and excitement in Kirtland, and in all the region round about. The people thronged to us night and day, insomuch that we had no time for rest and retirement. Meetings were convened in different neighborhoods, and multitudes came together soliciting our attendance. In two or three weeks from our arrival, we had baptized one hundred and twenty-seven souls.”
    While their primary purpose was to preach to the native tribes, Cowdery and his fellow missionaries continued to teach others they met along the way. In retrospect, the greatest impact of their mission occurred partway through their travels. Pratt tells how they continued on, eventually reaching the Indians in Kansas. However, at no time were these first missionaries called to preach to the American Indians in and around the Great Lakes. Nor were they called to preach to any other specific groups, tribes, or areas. The commandment stated for this first mission to go ”into the wilderness among the Lamanites” (D&C: 32:2). At the time, the wilderness was to the west, in the territories where the Indians had been driven by the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
    Comment: “These Native Americans are genetically different from the groups in Central and South America.”
    Response: Genetics is still in its infancy and no definite understanding of this can yet be achieved, other than in parlor room discussions by uninformed people. Science is just beginning to understand this, and so much more needs to be learned before such definitive statements can be made.
    Comment: “So you're correct South Africa is treacherous and the current does move Eastward.”
    Response: It is common maritime knowledge. We were merely repeating that.
    Comment: “And the account of their journey does corroborate this as they were driven back by storm and wave.”

The (light blue arrow) Agulhas Current moving south bends to the east in the Agulhas Return Current; The (red arrow) storm track following the winds of the current would turn east, not back the way they had come, and therefore, the (yellow dotted arrow) proposed Lehi course would turn eastward with the storm not return them along the line from which they came

    Response: The Agulhas Return Current which is the eastward flowing return current of the earlier south flowing Agulhas Current flows eastward, not back the way they had dome. In fact, Nephi said, “after we had been driven back upon the waters for the space of four days” (1 Nephi 18:15), which is not what the Agulhas Return Current would have done. It would have taken a southwest (south by west) moving vessel and turn it southeast (east by south). Not what the scripture said.
    Nor is it what happens in a whirling storm, especially like those in the Indian Ocean—they are circular storms, and if one is not careful, has no power, and is subject strictly to winds and currents, they ship is turned in a wide circle by such a storm and could be thrown out of the center of the melee into the waters heading back in the direction from which they had been sailing—obviously, what Nephi described. Such a storm would have occurred, where the large majority of Indian Ocean storms occur, called “tropical cyclones,” to the east of Madagascar

When Nephi’s ship (yellow dotted) was caught in the (red circle) storm, the circular movement of the tropical cyclone turned the ship around and sent it back in the direction it had previously sailed

    Comment: “But it is not impossible for them [to] round South Africa.”
    Response: It would not have been impossible for the average Israelite to have killed a lion with his bare hands like Samson did; however, none have been recorded as doing so. To simply say “it is not impossible…” for something to happen is not worthy of any intelligent discussion. It would have not been impossible for the Lord to have picked them up outside Jerusalem and whisked them away to the Land of Promise and saved them all the trouble of spending 8 years in the wilderness, 2 years building a ship, and months braving the waters of the deep ocean. However, that is not a path to a worthwhile discussion of the facts.
    While it was not impossible for Lehi to have rounded Africa, it would have been about as improbable as one can get. It would have been so much simpler just to send them the other way, onto the Southern Ocean, that would have shortened the voyage and shortened the time involved at sea as we have stated many times.