Walter Veith

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.

Veith was professor of the zoology department at the University of Cape Town and taught in the medical bioscience department.

During this time, the department was awarded a Royal Society London grant for zoological research.

After joining the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he rejected the theory of evolution in favor of creationism and so had to give up teaching at the University of Cape Town.

As a creationist, he speaks internationally on this and other topics.

His lectures, videos, and books promote creationist and Adventist beliefs and doctrines.

These include an evangelical understanding of the Bible with a very strong commitment to the Textus Receptus and the King James Version of the Bible.

He also promotes a vegan diet and a belief in the imminent fulfillment of Biblical End Times and the return of Jesus Christ.

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.

He is the evangelist of Clash Of Minds, a non-profit worldwide ministry based in Limpopo, South Africa.

Walter Veith was born in 1949 and grew up in a strict Catholic home.

His mother, a Protestant, died early from cancer.

Veith was told by his religion teacher that because of his mother's non-Catholic beliefs, she would "languish forever and ever" in hell.

This prompted Veith to become an atheist at the age of ten.

In 1971 Walter Veith began studying zoology at the University of Stellenbosch, where he graduated with a Master of Science in zoology.

His thesis dealt with the propagation of dwarf chameleons.

A two-year postgraduate course at the University of Cape Town followed in 1979.

His thesis was an Autoradiographic and Electron Microscopic study of embryonic nutrition in the teleost Clinus superciliosus.

He also attended lectures on zoology at the universities of Durban-Westville and Stellenbosch.

Veith's research field is nutritional physiology, concentrating on the effect of modern animal husbandry on the incidence of disease transferral to humans.

His research concentrates on degenerative diseases caused by incorrect nutrition and particularly on diseases such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases, and also on fertility.

Early in the 1980s, after his young son fell seriously ill (believing it was demonic possession) and recovered, allegedly with the help of a Catholic priest, he and his wife returned to the Catholic faith.

But a few years later he developed doubts about Catholicism and, through the influence of a craftsman who renovated his kitchen, he and his wife joined the Adventist faith.

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.

He soundly put her in her place.

Now, his new faith and his own Bible studies led him to adopt this belief, which brought him into conflict with what he was teaching.

Because of his lectures on the alleged scientific evidence for the biblical creation story he was asked to leave the University of Stellenbosch.

He sold his house in Stellenbosch and accepted a position as associate professor at the University of the Western Cape in zoology.

His serious concerns about the theory of evolution had been resolved by the proviso that he only needed to carry out research.

The university closed temporarily due to race riots.

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 researched evidence of the biblical story of creation, and developed a series of lectures to present his findings.

The following year Veith received a one-year contract at the University of Cape Town.

His creationist lectures meant that his contract was not renewed, but he was hired in a research-only position at the University of the Western Cape.

At this time, Veith began to hold lectures outside university.

Initially, his talks were mainly to Adventist congregations in the United States, then in Canada, Australia and Europe.

In his lectures on nutrition he promoted Adventist values such as vegetarianism and fasting.

After graduation, Veith became an adjunct professor at the University of Stellenbosch, and until 1987 gave lectures in zoology.

In 1995 he became a full professor with tenure and the head of the Department of Zoology, the content also dealt with the theory of evolution after five years.

His first book was published in 1998 under the title of Diet and Health.