Hugh Ross (creationist)

Hugh Ross
Born Hugh Norman Ross
July 24, 1945
Montreal, Canada
Alma mater University of British Columbia (BSc)
University of Toronto (MSc, PhD)
Notable awards Trotter Prize 2012
Spouse Kathy
Children 2
Website
Reasons to Believe

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 promotes progressive and day-age forms of Old Earth Creationism. Ross accepts the scientific age of the earth and the scientific age of the universe, however he rejects evolution and abiogenesis as explanations for the history and origin of life.[4][5][6]

Early life

Hugh 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.[7]

Career

Before starting Reasons to Believe, Ross 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.[8] Ross has publicly debated both scientists, including Jerry Coyne, Eugenie Scott, Victor Stenger, Peter Ward, Lewis Wolpert, Michael Shermer, and Rob Tarzwell. Ross has also debated young-earth creationists, including Ken Ham, Kent Hovind, Duane Gish, Danny Faulkner, Andrew McIntosh, John Morris and Ray Comfort. In 2012 he won the Trotter Prize, delivering the Trotter Lecture at Texas A&M University on "Theistic Implications for Big Bang Cosmology."[9]

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.[10] 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[11]) are historic, distinct, and sequential, but not 24 hours in length nor equal in length. Ross and the RTB team agree with the scientific community 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.[12][13]

Ross is a critic of young-earth creationists, in particular Russell Humphreys.[14]

Criticism

Hugh Ross has been criticized by CSUF professor emeritus Mark Perakh for misunderstanding basic concepts of thermodynamics together with misinterpretations of Hebrew words.[15][16]

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.[17] Ross holds that Noah's Flood was local (universal to all mankind, but not to the whole planet), 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).[18]

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,[19][20] 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.[21]

Bibliography

Ross has written or collaborated on the following books:

Additionally, he has contributed to the following volumes:

See also

References

  1. Utter, Glenn (August 1, 2001). The Religious Right, 2nd Edition. ABC-Clio Inc. p. 111. ISBN 978-1576072127.
  2. "Faculty Page". Meet Our Faculty. Northern California Bible College. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  3. "Reasons to Believe - About -Who We Are". Reasons to Believe. 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-18.
  4. Hugh Ross. "Summary of Reasons To Believe's Testable Creation Model".
  5. Hugh Ross. "Creation vs. Evolution: Why a Model Is Essential".
  6. Hugh Ross. "A Beginner's-and Expert's-Guide to the Big Bang: Sifting Facts from Fictions".
  7. Dr. Hugh Ross, President & Founder of RTB, about
  8. "Origins Conference October 3–4, 2008". Skeptics Society. 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  9. "Astronomer Hugh Ross Receives Prestigious Trotter Prize and Speaks at Texas A&M for Endowed Lecture Series March 8, 2012". Red Orbit.com. 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-07.
  10. Pennock, Robert T. (February 28, 2000). Tower of Babel, The Evidence against the New Creationism. The MIT Press. p. 20. ISBN 0-262-66111-X.
  11. Brown, Driver, Briggs and Gesenius. "Yowm". The Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon. Retrieved 2006-10-18.
  12. Hugh Ross. "More Than Intelligent Design". Facts for Faith, Issue 10. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2015-03-23.
  13. "Creation Scientists Applaud PA Judge's Ruling Against 'Intelligent Design'-Dressing Up ID Is No Substitute for Real Science". Reasons To Believe. Retrieved 2007-09-25.
  14. Samuel R. Conner and Hugh Ross Ph.D., The Unraveling of Starlight and Time, March 1999
  15. Perakh, Mark (1999-12-12. Updated on 2002-05-09). "A Crusade of Arrogance". Retrieved 2006-10-18. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. Perakh, Mark (2004-05-10). "Cooling of the universe: Pseudo-thermodynamics of Hugh Ross revisited". Retrieved 2006-10-19.
  17. Jonathan Sarfati. "Trilobites on the Ark?". Retrieved 2006-10-18.
  18. RTB, The Waters of the Flood, January 1, 2000, By Dr. Hugh Ross
  19. "Panel Discussion on Hugh Ross' Contribution in Philosophy and Theology of Science" 21 (1). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. Summer 1998 (issued on 13 November 1999). Retrieved 2012-02-20. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. William Lane Craig (June 1999). "Hugh Ross's Extra-Dimensional Deity: A Review Article" (PDF) 42 (2). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. pp. 293 to 304. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  21. J.W. Browning (2004-02-08). "Science and the Bible: A debate, Final Draft RMCF (Rocky Mountain Creation Fellowship) Position Paper" (PDF). Rocky Mountain Creation Fellowship. Retrieved 2012-03-10.

External links