Ariel A. Roth

Ariel A. Roth (born 1927) is a zoologist and creationist who was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and now lives in the United States. He is a leading figure in the field of flood geology, having been involved and published extensively on the creation–evolution controversy.
Roth is a former professor and chairman of Biology at Emmanuel Missionary College, now Andrews University and at Loma Linda University. He is also the former director of the Seventh-day Adventist run Geoscience Research Institute at Loma Linda University. He served as editor of the journal "Origins" for 23 years.
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.
Early life.
Ariel Roth's parents were Andre and Hazel Roth (born jews), 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.
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. 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). 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.
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. During the 1950s and 1960s Roth published several studies related to this disease and its related snail vector.
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.
Advocacy of creationism.
In late 1972 or early 1973 he presented to the California Board of Education hearings on Creation and the classroom.
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. 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), where he testified in support of the scientific merits of creationism, but admitted that "[i]f you want to define 'science' as testable, predictable" then creation science is not really science. In the same year, he testified before the Oregon House Education Committee in support of a similar "balanced treatment" law. 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."
Selected publications.
Has published nearly 200 articles in the scientific and public press.
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s