Frank Lewis Marsh

Frank Lewis Marsh (18 October, 1899, Aledo, Illinois - 1992) was an American biologist, educator and creationist author. In 1963 he was one of the ten founding members of the Creation Research Society along with more well-known creationists such as Henry M. Morris and Duane Gish.

Biography

Marsh first trained as a nurse at Hinsdale Sanitarium and Hospital. Later, while teaching at an Seventh-day Adventist school (Hinsdale Academy) in the Chicago area Marsh studied advanced biology at the University of Chicago and in 1935 obtained an M.S. in zoology from Northwestern University. In 1940 he completed a PhD in botany at the University of Nebraska, becoming the first Adventist to earn a doctoral degree in biology.

In his book "Fundamental Biology" (self-published, 1941) Marsh described himself as a "fundamentalist scientist". He argued that modern human races are degenerate forms of first created man and warned that the living world is the scene of a cosmic struggle between the Creator and Satan. Marsh claimed that Satan is a "master geneticist" and speculated that almagamation and hybridization are his ways of destroying the original harmony and perfection among living things. Marsh viewed the black skin of Negroes as one the "abnormalities" engineered in this diabolical way. (Lustig et al, 2004, p. 92)

In "Fundamental Biology" Marsh coined the term "baramin" for the Genesis "kind", although in "Evolution, Creation and Science" (1944) Marsh asserted that mankind is the only sure example of a baramin. In the same work Marsh claimed that both creation and evolution are testable and falsifiable; that special creation requires less faith to believe in than organic evolution and that a global flood produced most or all of the geological record.

In "Evolution or Special Creation?" (1947) Marsh argued for the scientific accuracy of the Bible and concluded: "surely the time is ripe for a return to the fundamentals of true science, the science of creationism". From the publication of this work onward Marsh avoided mentioning Ellen G. White, co-founder of Seventh-day Adventism, as he believed such references would repel non-Adventist readers (Lustig et all, 2004, p. 93).

Marsh rejected uniformitarianism and disputed calculations of an ancient age for the earth in "Studies in Creationism" (c. 1950), and also claimed that disease results from the deterioration in nature caused by Satan since the Fall. This health theme is developed further in "Life, Man and Time" (c. 1957), in which Marsh claimed that the reduced lifespan of humans is a consequence of the carnivorous diet adopted since the Flood. Antediluvian conditions provided a healthy balanced diet, according to Marsh. In the same volume he objected to a statement by Dobzhansky that he (Marsh) was virtually the only scientist who rejects evolution.

In his book "Variation and Fixity in Nature" (1976) Marsh insisted that all of the evidence for evolution is only evidence for microevolution. He also developed the hypothesis that baramins are defined by ability to hybidize and claimed that the most basic and well-demonstrated of biological principles is that of "limitation of variation". Marsh concluded finally that "The Bible knows nothing about organic evolution. It regards the origin of man by special creation as a historical fact... In view of the subjectivity of the evidence upon which a decision on the matter of origins must be made, creationism and evolutionism should be respected as alternate viewpoints".

Marsh died in 1992. His papers are kept at Andrews University, from which Marsh gained a B.A. in 1927 and a B.S in 1929 at what was then Emmanuel Missionary College.

See also

*Baraminology
*Creation biology
*Creation-evolution controversy
*Creation science
*Flood geology
*Pre-Adamite
*Young Earth creationism
*Seventh-day Adventist Church

References

*Lustig, Abigail, Richards, Robert J. and Ruse, Michael (Eds.). (2004). "Darwinian Heresies". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81516-9
*McIver, Tom (1988). "Anti-Evolution: A Reader's Guide to Writings Before and After Darwin". Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-4520-3
*Numbers, Ronald L. (Ed.) (1994). "The Early Writings of Harold W. Clark and Frank Lewis Marsh" (Creationism in Twentieth-Century America, Vol 8). Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8153-1809-X

External links

* [http://www.bryancore.org/bsg/abouthistory.html About the Baraminology Study Group: Historical Context of Views]
* [http://www.bryan.edu/771.html Baraminology]
* [http://www.andrews.edu/library/car/registers/Marsh,%20Frank%20L%20Papers.pdf Frank Lewis Marsh Papers]
* [http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1995/PSCF9-95Haas.html Flesh for "The Creationists"' Bones]