Introduction

Recently, a user by the name of u/BillReel made a post to the mormon subreddit:

Over the last couple years I have accumulated a running list of three facets that deal with Mormon Truth claims.

Those lists are titled:

1. Prophets and Fallibility: A Record of Mormon Leader's Reversals and Abandonment of Past Teachings
2. The Mormon Paradox: A List of Inconsistencies That Challenge Faith
3. The Mormon Truth Crisis: Examining the Deception and Obfuscation Within Mormonism

u/BillReel frames these lists as "new resources to help Believers investigate the truth claims of Mormonism." In the same post, u/BillReel openly admitted that these lists are an attempt to gish gallop believing members.

We have to be overwhelmed by the absurdity of our position or the truth to change our mind and these lists especially in unison help the believer do just that.

A gish gallop is a manipulative rhetorical technique that involves overwhelming an opponent with as many arguments as possible, with no regard for accuracy, validity, or relevance for those arguments.

I would like to determine if u/BillReel's lists are accurate, valid, and relevant.

We will be starting with the first list: Prophets and Fallibility. Every couple of days I will be posting an item from the list for discussion. Since the lists are presented as a resource for believing members, I think believing members are suitable respondents.

This post will remained pinned to the top of the sub and used as an index for each list item discussion.

Click here to go to the first post in this series.

Index

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1. Exaltation as defined by the LDS Church in the past (and even some places in the present) meant that you would be like God and get your own planet.  Today the Church officially dismisses the idea.

• 20. Church Leaders have taught that Lamanites were the principle ancestors of Native Americans. Because of the Science of DNA research the Church has had to compromise its position and now teaches that Lamanites are among the ancestors of Native Americans. The reality is there is essentially no Israelite DNA in Native Americans that can be traced to those of Jewish descent during the right time period to even come close to validating the Book of Mormon narrative. What this means is we now have zero ability to pinpoint any specific Naticve American and ensure he/she is a Lamanite. This has deep repercussions for Mormon Theology and the stated purpose of the Book of Mormon. (copied verbatim)
• 21. Church Leaders have taught that the Book of Mormon is absolutely an ancient text. Today the Church’s scholars and apologists are moving to a framing that acknolwedges a significant amount of 19th century material in the Book of Mormon that has the Book of Mormon at least in part be a modern production and text. (copied verbatim)