Keith A. Crandall's Careless DNA Claims

[_Simon Southerton]

Keith A. Crandall is a former BYU biology professor with considerable experience in molecular and population genetics. Crandall stars in the FAIR DVD “The Book of Mormon and New World DNA” where he claims Middle Eastern DNA has been found in the Maya. Thanks to Crandall, FAIR now argues that there are “substantial genetic ties between Hebrews and the Maya.” Crandall also mocks people like me who he says couldn’t understand population genetics because “it's a tricky kind of data.” However, it is Crandall who has misunderstood the research, as I outline clearly in a new post on my blog.

The FAIR DVD has had a troubled history. It is a dog's breakfast of interviews with LDS apologists making unbelievable claims about connections between Hebrews and Native American populations, in particular the Maya. In the first edition it contained claims by John Tvedtnes that Middle Eastern X and N mitochondrial DNA lineages had been found in Mesoamerica. To his credit John asked for these faulty claims be edited out of the DVD after he was alerted to them. However, the current DVD still contains Keith Crandall’s clangers. Unlike Tvedtnes who isn’t a scientist, Keith Crandall is a very capable scientist. He should be very concerned if he has misrepresented the research of his fellow scientists. His error is so obvious he ought to retract his comments, however, he is stubbornly refusing to do so.

In the last few months FAIR has been flooding YouTube with their DVDs. I even heard recently of family members saying that Hebrew DNA has been found in the Americas and Uncle Simon doesn’t understand the science. As a consequence I have chosen to publicly challenge Keith Crandall’s careless claims. I would like to see this problematic and disturbing DVD withdrawn from circulation.

http://simonsoutherton.blogspot.com.au/ ... laims.html

[_DrW]

Simon,

Your latest blog post is very well written, well referenced and clearly illustrated.

Looks as though Dr. Crandall is taking a big chance with his professional reputation here in order to render an apologetic favor to the LDS Church.

Thank you for bringing this to the public's attention. If enough people see and comment on his misstatements, perhaps he will decide that his professional reputation is more valuable to him than his Mormon reputation and do the right thing.

Although "Lying for the Lord" is well accepted in Mormon culture and often seems to enhance the reputation of certain LDS General Authorities, such behavior will damage reputation of a scientist when it is brought to the attention of the scientific community, whether the offending individual is a Mormon or not.
________________________________________________

ETA: Do you know if Dr. Crandall has reiterated or defended his claim of Middle Eastern DNA in the pre-Columbian Mayan genome since the publication of Hellenthal et al. 2014, in Science?

One would think that the appearance of Hellenthal et al. paper would provide him a great opportunity to gracefully back down, while minimizing the potential damage to his scientific reputation. He had better hurry though. That window of opportunity is closing rapidly.

[_Simon Southerton]

Do you know if Dr. Crandall has reiterated or defended his claim of Middle Eastern DNA in the pre-Columbian Mayan genome since the publication of Hellenthal et al. 2014, in Science?

One would think that the appearance of Hellenthal et al. paper would provide him a great opportunity to gracefully back down, while minimizing the potential damage to his scientific reputation. He had better hurry though. That window of opportunity is closing rapidly.

Yes. I wrote to him about a week ago pointing out his mistake and gave him a link to the Hellenthal paper. This is part of the letter.

"Further compelling evidence that this DNA is the result of post-Columbus admixture was published earlier this year by Hellenthal et al. (2014, Science 343,747). Using data on over 400,000 SNPs from the same Mayan individuals studied by Li, Rosenberg and Wang (the Human Genome Diversity Cell Line Panel) they show that the admixed DNA in the Maya was derived from European and African admixture after the arrival of Columbus. No Middle Eastern DNA was detected.

Regardless of which side of the argument we sit, the scientific research should be fairly represented and we should be completely accurate in the claims made based on the evidence. The mistake you made was an easy one to make and you were under considerable pressure to say things that FAIR wanted to hear. You were a new member at the time and you would not have appreciated how widely and how seriously your words would be taken.

I respectfully ask that you nip this issue in the bud and ask Scott Gordon at FAIR to remove your claims from their DVD and take down the Youtube clips. It won't take a minute and Scott will act on whatever you say. http://www.fairmormon.org/contact I have previously pointed out to John Tvedtnes some erroneous claims he made in the same DVD and to his considerable credit he asked FAIR to remove the problematic claims from the DVD and they did. I respect John for doing that.

Could you also please let me know when you contact Scott so that I know you have acted upon my request? If I am reassured that you have acted promptly on my request, which I trust you will, it will be the end of the matter and I will not hear a bad word said about you.

I wish you all the best in your exciting new role at GWU. I sincerely hope it has been a positive step in your research career.

Yours sincerely

Simon "

In his response he asked me to "please leave him out of this debate". What?! He makes the outrageous claim and then expects to be left alone.

[_Runtu]

In his response he asked me to "please leave him out of this debate". What?! He makes the outrageous claim and then expects to be left alone.

He's already in the debate because his erroneous views are out there on video on the Internet. What a bizarre response.

[_Tobin]

In his response he asked me to "please leave him out of this debate". What?! He makes the outrageous claim and then expects to be left alone.

He's already in the debate because his erroneous views are out there on video on the Internet. What a bizarre response.

Not really. That isn't a scientific journal or anything a real scientist would take seriously. If Keith wishes to engage or not engage Simon, that is up to him. It is ok for Simon to make Keith aware of the issue, but he should then leave Keith alone. Otherwise, Simon is the one that is acting creepy.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Oh, wow. I wonder who pressured him into this nonsense? This would make some awesome Bob Bobberson material...

- Doc

[_DrW]

Not really. That isn't a scientific journal or anything a real scientist would take seriously. If Keith wishes to engage or not engage Simon, that is up to him. It is ok for Simon to make Keith aware of the issue, but he should then leave Keith alone. Otherwise, Simon is the one that is acting creepy.

Sorry, Tobin.

Even though you claim to have me on ignore, I have to point out that your silly suggestion would not be in the best interest of Dr. Crandall, or the LDS Church.

As a kindness to Dr. Crandall, it should be noted (as Runtu has done above) that the DVDs upon which the erroneous statements were made by him are publicly available. Therefore, Dr. Crandall's erroneous claims are a matter of public record and he would do well to address the matter by quickly and quietly acknowledging his misleading claims.

The last thing he wants to do is get in a public debate with Dr. Southerton, whether directly or (worse yet) via a surrogate. If he were to do so, he would be taking a position that is directly contradicted by the best available relevant data, and more importantly, by the scientists who stand behind it.

[_Equality]

He should be very concerned if he has misrepresented the research of his fellow scientists.

Simon, do you know whether the scientists whose views Crandall is misrepresenting are (a) aware of the misrepresentations; (b) care; or (c) have contacted or intend to contact Crandall directly to ask him to correct the misrepresentations?

[_karl61]

Mr. Southerton: thanks for your posts. They are interesting. Have you ever read any material from Daniel Fairbanks. He wrote a book called Relics of Eden that deals with evolution. http://www.uvu.edu/profpages/profiles/show/user_id/1435 I liked the book. If I remember correctly, one of the things that I found interesting was when he was dealing with human evolution and writing that if evolution is true, then scientist should find this at a certain point on the human genome and then they look at find what they are looking for at that exact point.

Here are books by him I found on Google:

http://books.google.com/books?id=O1mFjW ... ks&f=false


http://books.google.com/books?id=U69366 ... ks&f=false

[_Craig Paxton]

What is lost in this argument is that “IF” DNA evidence supporting Book of Mormon truth claims were to ever surface…F.A.I.R. wouldn’t have to publicize it in some obscure youtube video…it would be front page news in every major scientific periodical and newspaper around the world… Truth doesn’t require apologetic arguments…it just is…

And I might add...if such evidence surfaced...those of us who doubt Book of Mormon claims...would be at the front of the parade promoting that evidence...after it passed scrutiny of course