Divisions Walter Julius Veith (born 1949) is a South African zoologist and a Seventh-day Adventist author and speaker known for his work in nutrition, creationism and Biblical exegesis.
[1] After joining the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he rejected the theory of evolution in favor of creationism[2][3] and so had to give up teaching at the University of Cape Town.
Veith has written a number of books, including Diet and Health and The Genesis Conflict, which gives a biblical perspective and evidence claimed to support young earth creationism.
[11] Veith's research field is nutritional physiology, concentrating on the effect of modern animal husbandry on the incidence of disease transferral to humans.
In his first lectures as an adjunct professor, he had had a student who rejected what she called the lie of evolutionism and instead maintained the truth of the biblical creation story.
This gave Veith the opportunity to travel to California and visit Ariel Roth, a creationist in charge of the Adventist Geoscience Research Institute, Loma Linda.
He used his position among other things to promote his belief in creationism and to deny the theory of evolution, finding a fellow believer in these views in his colleague Quincy Johnson.
[18] After conflicts at the University of the Western Cape due to their unorthodox views, Walter Veith and Quincy Johnson left the department of zoology.
[20] He states that Adventism has proceeded from the beliefs of the Reformation which eventually fell into creeds and made five key discoveries along with the Three Angels' Messages,"[21][22] which make the Adventist denomination unique: Veith has also presented lectures on diet, how it directly impacts numerous degenerative diseases including his findings of the negative effects caused by poor nutrition, such as osteoporosis, arthritis, and cancer.
[citation needed] In a lecture in Nürnberg-Marienberg in October 2012, Walter Veith claimed that the Holocaust was used to "herd together" the Jews from all over Europe, so that they could be resettled in Palestine.
[citation needed] The leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany, Austria and Switzerland decided on 9 November 2012 that these statements were anti-Semitic and discriminatory.
[32] In December 2012, the Church leaders banned Veith from speaking in community centers and described his lectures as "conspiracy theories" and "spiritual abuse".
Veith blamed the accusation of anti-Semitism on "linguistic inadequacy", because German is a foreign language for him, adding that in Germany there is a "hypersensitivity" to statements about the persecution of the Jews.