Hugh Ross (creationist)

Hugh Norman Ross (born July 24, 1945) is a Canadian American astrophysicist, Christian apologist, and old earth creationist.

Ross has a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Toronto^[1][2] and an undergraduate degree in physics from the University of British Columbia.^[3] He is known for establishing his own ministry called Reasons to Believe that uses scientific evidence to argue for the truth of Christianity.^[4] It promotes progressive and day-age forms of Old Earth Creationism. Ross advocates an old age of the earth and an old age of the universe, though he rejects evolution and abiogenesis as explanations for the history and origin of life.^[5][6][7]

Biography

Ross was born in Montreal and raised in Vancouver, Canada. Ross earned a BSc in physics from the University of British Columbia and an MSc and PhD in astronomy from the University of Toronto; and he was a postdoctoral research fellow for five years at Caltech, studying quasars and galaxies.^[8]

Before starting Reasons to Believe, he was on the ministerial staff at Sierra Madre Congregational Church. In addition to apologetics writing, Ross speaks regularly in academic venues and churches, as well as regular podcasts "I Didn't Know That" (formerly Creation Update), and "Science News Flash." He spoke at the 2008 Skeptics Society' "Origins Conference" at California Institute of Technology alongside Nancey Murphy, Victor Stenger, Kenneth R. Miller. Sean Carroll, Michael Shermer and Leonard Susskind.^[9] Ross has publicly debated both scientists, including Jerry Coyne, Eugenie Scott, Victor Stenger, Peter Ward, Lewis Wolpert and Michael Shermer, and young-earth creationists, including Ken Ham, Kent Hovind, Duane Gish, Danny Faulkner, and John Morris. In 2012 he won the Trotter Prize, delivering the Trotter Lecture at Texas A&M University on "Theistic Implications for Big Bang Cosmology."^[10]

Ross is married to Kathy and they have two sons.

Creationism

Ross believes in progressive creationism, which posits that while the earth is billions of years old, life did not appear by natural forces alone but that a supernatural agent formed different lifeforms in incremental (progressive) stages, and day-age creationism which is an effort to reconcile a literal Genesis account of Creation with modern scientific theories on the age of the Universe, the Earth, life, and humans.^[11] He rejects the Young Earth Creationist (YEC) position that the earth is younger than 10,000 years, or that the creation "days" of Genesis 1 represent literal 24-hour periods. Ross instead asserts that these days (translated from the Hebrew word yom^[12]) are historic, distinct, and sequential, but not 24 hours in length nor equal in length. Ross and his team agree with the scientific community at large that the vast majority of YEC arguments are pseudoscience and that any version of intelligent design is inadequate if it doesn't provide a testable hypothesis which can make verifiable and falsifiable predictions, and if not, it should not be taught in the classroom as science.^[13][14]

Ross is a critic of young-earth creationists, in particular Russell Humphreys.^[15]

Criticism by young Earth creationists

Ross is criticized by YECs for, among other things, his acceptance of uniformitarian geology and astronomy over what they see as a plain reading of the English translation of Genesis. YECs claim that speciation explains how present biodiversity could have arisen from the small number of "kinds" after Noah's Flood.^[16] Ross holds that Noah's Flood was local (universal to all mankind), and believes it killed all humans except for those on the ark, whereas YECs generally hold that Noah's Flood was global (all land mass, even those with no humans).^[17]

Criticism by other Christians

Ross has drawn criticism for his views on God existing in hyperdimensions of time and space and interpreting Christian doctrines in that light from, among others, J.P. Moreland, Thomas C. Oden, and William Lane Craig,^[18][19] who otherwise support him. Ross responded to these critiques in the Journal of the Evangelical Philosophical Society J.W. Browning of the Rocky Mountain Creation Fellowship, who agrees by and large with the YEC stance and with William Lane Craig to the extent of his critique on Ross, also disputed additional statements Ross had made on primary Trinitarian doctrine.^[20]

Criticism by Mark Perakh

Hugh Ross has been criticized by CSUF professor emeritus Mark Perakh for misunderstanding basic concepts of thermodynamics together with misinterpretations of Hebrew words.^[21][22]

Bibliography

Ross has written or collaborated on the following books:

• The Fingerprint of God. Orange, Calif.: Promise Publishing, 1989, 2nd ed. 1991, 3rd ed. 2005 ISBN 978-0939497188
• The Creator and the Cosmos. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1993, 2nd ed. 1995, 3rd ed. 2001 ISBN 978-0891097006
• Creation and Time. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1994 ISBN 978-0891097761
• Beyond the Cosmos. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1996, 2nd ed. 1999; Orlando, FL: Signalman Publishing, 2010, 3rd ed. ISBN 978-0984061488
• The Genesis Question, Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1998, 2nd ed. 2001 ISBN 978-1576831113
• The Genesis Debate, Mission Viejo, CA: Crux, 2002 (with five other authors) ISBN 978-0970224507
• Lights in the Sky and Little Green Men, Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002 ISBN 978-1576832080
• A Matter of Days, Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2004 ISBN 978-1576833759
• Origins of Life, Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2004 (with Fazale Rana) ISBN 978-1576833445
• Who Was Adam? Colorado Springs, NavPress, 2005 (with Fazale Rana) ISBN 978-1576835777
• Creation as Science, Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2006 ISBN 978-1576835784
• Why the Universe is the Way it Is, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2008 ISBN 978-0801071966
• More Than a Theory, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2009 ISBN 978-0801014420
• Hidden Treasures in the Book of Job: How the Oldest Book of the Bible Answers Today's Scientific Questions, Baker Books, 2011 ISBN 978-0801072109

Additionally, he has contributed to the following volumes:

• The Creation Hypothesis, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994 ISBN 978-0830816989
• Mere Creation, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998 ISBN 978-0830815159
• Why I Am a Christian, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2000 ISBN 978-0801012105
• The Day I Met God, Sisters, OR: Multnomah 2001 ISBN 978-1576737866

See also

• Age of the Earth
• anthropic principle
• astronomy
• Biblical cosmology
• cosmology
• Creator god
• Dating Creation
• Fine-tuned universe
• Genesis creation narrative
• Timeline of the Universe

References

External links

• Reasons to Believe official web page
• Official Biography on Reasons to Believe