Ariel A. Roth

Ariel A. Roth (born 1927) is a zoologist and creationist who was born in Geneva, Switzerland[1] and now lives in the United States. He is a leading figure in the field of flood geology,[2] having been involved and published extensively on the creation-evolution controversy.[3]

Roth is a former professor and chairman of Biology at Emmanuel Missionary College, now Andrews University.[4] and at Loma Linda University.[5] He is also the former director of the Seventh-day Adventist run Geoscience Research Institute at Loma Linda University.[6] He served as editor of the journal Origins for 23 years.[7][8]

After receiving his PhD in Biology at the University of Michigan, Roth pursued research in invertebrate zoology and on fossil and living coral reefs funded by NOAA, the National Institutes of Health, and other government agencies. He obtained additional training to facilitate his research in radiation biology, geology and mathematics at various campuses of the University of California. He has been a longtime member of the Geological Society of America and the Society for Sedimentary Geology. Roth has published many articles in both scientific and popular journals and lectured worldwide.[9]

Early life

Ariel Roth's parents were Andre and Hazel Roth, Seventh-day Adventist missionaries who served in Haiti, France and Switzerland. His oldest brother, Lionel Andre Roth, also attended PUC and graduated with a medical degree from Loma Linda in 1946. He had a sister, Elvire Hilgert.[10]

Education

Roth received his Bachelor of Arts in biology from Pacific Union College in 1948, and his Master of Science in biology (1949) and Ph.D. in parasitology (1955) from the University of Michigan.[11][12] He received additional training in geology, radiobiology, and mathematics at University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Riverside.

Career

In the fall of 1950, Roth joined the biology department at Pacific Union College (PUC).[13] He worked at PUC until 1957. In 1958, Roth took the place of Frank L. Marsh as chairman of the biology department at Emmanuel Missionary College (EMC), now known as Andrews University.[14]

In 1961, while Roth was head of the biology department at EMC, the United States Public Health Service awarded the department $17,082 to be used in a three-year study of the disease schistosomiasis.[15] During the 1950s and 1960s Roth published several studies related to this disease and its related snail vector.[16]

Hydrolab in the Bahamas, 1974.

In May 1974, Roth and two other scientists from Loma Linda University lived for a week fifty feet under the ocean's surface near Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. His team studied coral formations. The three lived in an anchored 18-foot metal hydro-lab when not conducting their experiments. The underwater laboratory and sleeping quarters was operated by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and was used by several groups.[17]

Academic activities and honors

Advocacy of creationism

In late 1972 or early 1973 he presented to the California Board of Education hearings on Creation and the classroom.[20]

In 1980, Roth argued that "Creation and various other views can be supported by the scientific data that reveal that the spontaneous origin of the complex integrated biochemical systems of even the simplest organisms is, at best, a most improbable event", which is regarded as a precursor to Michael Behe's irreducible complexity argument, which has been the subject of considerable empirical refutation from the scientific community.[21] Roth later used a version of this argument in his testimony in McLean v. Arkansas (which struck down the Arkansas Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act),[22] where he testified in support of the scientific merits of creationism,[23] but admitted that "[i]f you want to define 'science' as testable, predictable" then creation science is not really science.[24] In the same year, he testified before the Oregon House Education Committee in support of a similar "balanced treatment" law.[25] His view is that science should emancipate itself from its limited secularism and "should allow the data of nature to direct . . . wherever it may lead."[26]

Selected publications

Has published nearly 200 articles in the scientific and public press.

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Roth 1998, p. 9.
  2. ↑ Young & Stearley 2008, p. 287.
  3. ↑ Numbers 2006, pp. 325–327
  4. ↑ Hammill 1962, p. 30.
  5. ↑ Campbell 1967.
  6. ↑ Land, Gary (2005). Historical Dictionary of Seventh-day Adventists. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 113. ISBN 0-8108-5345-0.
  7. ↑ Roth 1998, p. About the Author
  8. ↑ "Ariel Roth, PhD. Adjunct Professor, Earth and Biological Sciences, School of Science and Tech". Loma Linda University: Faculty Directory. 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
  9. ↑ Utt, Richard H. (February 1993). "Evolution: The working model doesn't work. An interview with Ariel Roth, Ph.D., director, Geoscience Research Institute, Loma Linda, California" (PDF). Liberty (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Assn.) 88 (2). Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  10. ↑ Schnepper, F. W., editor (June 25, 1951). "Obituaries, Roth - Lionel Andre Roth" (PDF). Pacific Union Recorder (Angwin, CA: Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists) 50 (47): 10. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
  11. ↑ Numbers, Ronald L. (1993). The creationists: The evolution of scientific creationism. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 295, 297. ISBN 0-520-08393-8.
  12. ↑ Roth 1998, p. about the author.
  13. ↑ Schnepper, F. W., editor (September 11, 1950). "Pacific Union College: New arrivals." (PDF). Pacific Union Recorder (Angwin, CA: Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists) 50 (6): 2. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
  14. ↑ Wade, Mildred, correspondent (November 20, 1958). "In Brief: North America, Lake Union" (PDF). Review and Herald (Washington D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Assn) 135 (54): 20. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
  15. ↑ Wade, Mildred, correspondent, Lake Union (March 9, 1961). "In Brief: North America, Lake Union" (PDF). Review and Herald (Washington D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Assn) 138 (10): 27. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
  16. ↑ Nadakal,, A. M.; Chi, Lois Wong (July 1962). "Observations on the Ovarian Activity and the Fate of Ova During Egg-Laying Inhibition Period in Oncomelania formosana, an Intermediate Host for Schistosoma japonicum". Transactions of the American Microscopical Society (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of American Microscopical Society) 81 (3): 246–251. ISSN 0003-0023. JSTOR 3224045.
  17. ↑ Wood, Kenneth H., editor (June 13, 1974). "News Notes: Loma Linda University" (PDF). Review and Herald (Washington D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Assn) 151 (24): 20. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
  18. ↑ Pacific Union College, Viewpoint. 1998. Vol. 27, No. 2, p. 17.
  19. ↑ Roth 1998, p. About the Author.
  20. ↑ Roth, Ariel A.; Brand, Leonard R. (February 15, 1973). "The Truly Scientific Approach" (PDF). Review (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Assoc) 150 (7): 4, 5. Retrieved 2011-11-18. (California State Board of Education hearing re: including creation as a theory of origins along with evolution.)
  21. ↑ Boudry, Maarten; Blancke, Stefaan; Braeckman, Johan (2010). "Irreducible Incoherence and Intelligent Design: A Look into the Conceptual Toolbox of a Pseudoscience". The Quarterly Review of Biology 85 (4): 473–482. doi:10.1086/656904. ISSN 0033-5770. PMID 21243965.
  22. ↑ Forrest, B. (2008). "Still creationism after all these years: understanding and counteracting intelligent design" (PDF). Integrative and Comparative Biology 48 (2): 189–201. doi:10.1093/icb/icn032. ISSN 1540-7063.
  23. ↑ Toumey, Christopher P. (1994). God's own scientists: creationists in a secular world. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. p. 134. ISBN 0-8135-2043-6.
  24. ↑ Berra, Tim (1990). Evolution and the myth of creationism : a basic guide to the facts in the evolution debate. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press. p. 134. ISBN 0-8047-1770-2.
  25. ↑ "Creationists, Evolutionists Debate Measure". Eugene Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon) 114 (146): 37. March 18, 1981. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
  26. ↑ Roth AA. 2008. Science Discovers God: Seven Convincing Lines of Evidence for His Existence. Hagerstown, MD. Review and Herald Publishing Association, p. 8.

References

External links

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