CONSPIRACY CREATIONISM

Many Adventists also give Veith a free pass in his handling of historical evidence because they are pleased by what he has to tell them about the evidences of science. In addition to his lectures on the conspiracies of the Illuminati and the Catholic Church, Veith is a popular speaker on some Adventist circuits as an apologist for young earth creationism. Any Adventist theologian or scientist publicly expressing views on creation similar to rigorous and sober evangelical scholars like John Stott, Alister McGrath, John Walton, and Nancey Murphy today stands to be denounced as an “infidel” Adventist and “Seventh-day Darwinian” by high-ranking church officials. Meanwhile, any and every incredible claim about the creation is now apparently deemed theologically acceptable by church leaders (judging from their conspicuous silence when confronted by figures like Veith) provided only that it is a fundamentalist one.

On May 19 and 20, 2011, Veith delivered two lectures at La Sierra University at the invitation of a student group, the “Sci-Fai” Club (formed by student Louie Bishop to agitate for strictly fundamentalist readings of Genesis and “scientific” creationism in the classroom). Veith’s visit was reported as a significant event by one fundamentalist lay Adventist website, EducateTruth.com. Amid fulsome praise for Veith’s ideas, a few commenters on the site raised concerns about Veith’s conspiracy theories. Site operator Shane Hilde quickly intervened to steer the conversation away from these questions. “Veith lectures on many topics, a lot of which are considered controversial,” Hilde wrote, “however, let’s only focus on his lectures regarding science and creation. This forum is not intended to be grounds for discussing the plethora of topics he has covered.”

Yet Veith’s handling of the evidences of history is directly relevant to his credibility as a creationist claiming to speak with authority and integrity about the evidences of natural science. And Veith’s reasoning is not of a radically different kind when he is dealing with scientific problems. Whether discussing evolution or the Illuminati, he is blithely unconcerned with the actual weight of the evidence. His interest is in data mining for anomalous or puzzling facts that can be amplified in a sensational way to confirm for his followers what they think they already know. In answer to a question from an audience member at La Sierra about his views on “amalgamation,” Veith made clear that his conspiracy theories and his “scientific” creationism are in fact deeply intertwined.

“Do you think the antideluvian world with its tremendous brain capacity was not as advanced as we are?” Veith asked (without waiting for any replies). After suggesting that the myth of the lost city of Atlantis is evidence for a hyper-advanced pre-flood civilization fully capable of conducting genetics experiments to blend human and animal DNA, Veith continued (from 6:40 here):

There are some that say that this great race to go to the moon and to discover what is on the moon and on the other side is perhaps a race to pick up some of the lost technology of the antideluvians, because if we could get there they surely got there. Maybe there’s something there. And it’s fascinating to me that in the space race it’s only the esoterics [sic] that take part. You have to be a high-ranking Freemason or a high-ranking Mormon in order to go to space. So there are all kinds of circumstantial evidences. Yes, I believe there was amalgamation and I believe that God destroyed that amalgamation and eventually he will destroy it again.

The harm done to Adventism’s name by such unscrupulous conspiracy evangelism and “scientific” creationism might tempt one to offer an elaborate counter-conspiracy theory (“thesis and antithesis”) to explain Veith himself. What better way for the secret societies to disorient Adventists and discredit the Adventist church, after all, than to dispatch someone like Veith expounding in Adventism’s name about how Nelson Mandela and Joseph Stalin are spiritual brothers in the same “club” controlled by Rome? Or how the Freemasons working at the bidding of Rome may well have journeyed to the moon in the 1960s in search of the lost technology of the antideluvians, since the pre-flood civilization of the days of Noah “surely got there” first? Is it really just a coincidence that “Veith” is the Germanized name for Vitus, who was one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of the Roman Catholic Church and who also happens to be the patron saint of actors?

But of course the only sane answer to this question is, yes, it really is just a coincidence. To understand Walter Veith requires no conspiracy theory. What it does require is deeper understanding of fundamentalist expressions of Adventist apocalyptic identity nearly two centuries after their original formulation. It also requires, it seems to this observer, some theological discernment of the meaning of Christ’s words in the Gospel of Matthew: “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

https://spectrummagazine.org/article/news/2011/10/31/dark-fantasy-world-walter-veith