Hugh Ross (creationist)
Encyclopedia
Hugh Norman Ross is a Canadian-born astrophysicist and creationist Christian apologist.
He has a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics, and later established his own ministry
called Reasons To Believe, that promotes progressive
and day-age
forms of old Earth creationism
. Ross believes that science teaches an old age of the earth
and an old age of the universe
, though he rejects the scientific consensus
on evolution
and abiogenesis
as explanations for the history and origin of life.
and raised in Vancouver, Canada. He 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
at Caltech, studying quasar
s and galaxies
. Ross was the youngest person ever to serve as director of observations for Vancouver’s Royal Astronomical Society
, and before starting Reasons to Believe, he was on the staff of 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, and Leonard Susskind
.
(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) are historic, distinct, and sequential, but not 24 hours in length nor equal in length. He agrees with the scientific community at large that the vast majority of YEC arguments are pseudoscience
, and finds any version of intelligent design
inadequate that doesn't provide a testable hypothesis
which can make verifiable and falsifiable predictions.
Ross is criticized by YECs for his acceptance of uniformitarian
geology
and astronomy over what they see as a plain reading of Genesis. YECs use speciation to explain how present biodiversity
could have arisen from the small number of "kinds" after Noah's Flood. Ross holds that Noah's Flood was local yet believes it killed all humans except for those on the ark, whereas YECs generally hold that Noah's Flood was global. He and his team have also said that intelligent design
is not science and agree that it should not be taught in the classroom as science without being testable.
Ross is a critic of young Earth creationist attempts, in particular Russell Humphreys
, to argue against the Starlight problem.
for crude errors and misunderstanding of basic concepts of thermodynamics together with misinterpretations of Hebrew words. Ross is also criticized by young Earth creationists, such as Ken Ham
, Kent Hovind
, Jonathan Sarfati
, Bolton Davidheiser, Lambert Dolphin, and Creation Ministries International
for his day-age creation version of Biblical creation.
He has a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics, and later established his own ministry
Christian ministry
In Christianity, ministry is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith. 2003's Encyclopedia of Christianity defines it as "carrying forth Christ's mission in the world", indicating that it is "conferred on each Christian in baptism." It is performed by all Christians...
called Reasons To Believe, that promotes progressive
Progressive creationism
Progressive creationism is the religious belief that God created new forms of life gradually, over a period of hundreds of millions of years. As a form of Old Earth creationism, it accepts mainstream geological and cosmological estimates for the age of the Earth, but posits that the new "kinds" of...
and day-age
Day-Age Creationism
Day-age creationism, a type of old Earth creationism, is an interpretation of the creation accounts found in Genesis. It holds that the six days referred to in the Genesis account of creation are not ordinary 24-hour days, but rather are much longer periods...
forms of old Earth creationism
Old Earth creationism
Old Earth creationism is an umbrella term for a number of types of creationism, including gap creationism and progressive creationism...
. Ross believes that science teaches an old age of the earth
Age of the Earth
The age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years This age is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples...
and an old age of the universe
Age of the universe
The age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang posited by the most widely accepted scientific model of cosmology. The best current estimate of the age of the universe is 13.75 ± 0.13 billion years within the Lambda-CDM concordance model...
, though he rejects the scientific consensus
Scientific consensus
Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of study. Consensus implies general agreement, though not necessarily unanimity. Scientific consensus is not by itself a scientific argument, and it is not part of the...
on evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
and abiogenesis
Abiogenesis
Abiogenesis or biopoesis is the study of how biological life arises from inorganic matter through natural processes, and the method by which life on Earth arose...
as explanations for the history and origin of life.
Biography
Ross was born in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and raised in Vancouver, Canada. He earned a BSc
BSC
BSC is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to:Science and technology* Bachelor of Science , an undergraduate degree* Base Station Controller, part of a mobile phone network; see: Base Station subsystem...
in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
from the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
and an MSc
MSC
- Computers:* Mario Strikers Charged* Microsoft Common Console Document, file for the Microsoft Management Console* Microelectronics Support Centre* Microsoft Corporation* MIDI Show Control* Message Sequence Chart...
and PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
from the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
; and he was a postdoctoral research fellow
Postdoctoral researcher
Postdoctoral research is scholarly research conducted by a person who has recently completed doctoral studies, normally within the previous five years. It is intended to further deepen expertise in a specialist subject, including acquiring novel skills and methods...
at Caltech, studying quasar
Quasar
A quasi-stellar radio source is a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus. Quasars are extremely luminous and were first identified as being high redshift sources of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and visible light, that were point-like, similar to stars, rather than...
s and galaxies
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
. Ross was the youngest person ever to serve as director of observations for Vancouver’s Royal Astronomical Society
Royal Astronomical Society
The Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society that began as the Astronomical Society of London in 1820 to support astronomical research . It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving its Royal Charter from William IV...
, and before starting Reasons to Believe, he was on the staff of Sierra Madre Congregational Church
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
. 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
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
alongside Nancey Murphy
Nancey Murphy
Nancey Murphy is Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA. She received the B.A. from Creighton University in 1973, the Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in 1980, and the Th.D...
, Victor Stenger, and Leonard Susskind
Leonard Susskind
Leonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch Professor of Theoretical Physics at Stanford University. His research interests include string theory, quantum field theory, quantum statistical mechanics and quantum cosmology...
.
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. He rejects the Young Earth CreationistYoung Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
(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) are historic, distinct, and sequential, but not 24 hours in length nor equal in length. He agrees with the scientific community at large that the vast majority of YEC arguments are pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
, and finds any version of intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
inadequate that doesn't provide a testable hypothesis
Hypothesis
A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι – hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose". For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...
which can make verifiable and falsifiable predictions.
Ross is criticized by YECs for his acceptance of uniformitarian
Uniformitarianism (science)
In the philosophy of naturalism, the uniformitarianism assumption is that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now, have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe. It has included the gradualistic concept that "the present is the...
geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
and astronomy over what they see as a plain reading of Genesis. YECs use speciation to explain how present biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
could have arisen from the small number of "kinds" after Noah's Flood. Ross holds that Noah's Flood was local yet believes it killed all humans except for those on the ark, whereas YECs generally hold that Noah's Flood was global. He and his team have also said that intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
is not science and agree that it should not be taught in the classroom as science without being testable.
Ross is a critic of young Earth creationist attempts, in particular Russell Humphreys
Russell Humphreys
Dr. David Russell Humphreys is an American physicist and creationist author. He has offered a young Earth creationist cosmological model to deal with the distant starlight problem.-Education and affiliations:...
, to argue against the Starlight problem.
Criticism
Hugh Ross has been criticized by physicist Mark PerakhMark Perakh
Mark Perakh , born in in Kiev, Ukraine, is a professor emeritus of Mathematics and statistical mechanics at California State University, Fullerton in Fullerton, California....
for crude errors and misunderstanding of basic concepts of thermodynamics together with misinterpretations of Hebrew words. Ross is also criticized by young Earth creationists, such as Ken Ham
Ken Ham
Kenneth Alfred Ham is the Australian President/CEO of Answers in Genesis USA. He is a vocal advocate for a young Earth and a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, and his cross-country speaking tours and many books make him one of the better known young-Earth...
, Kent Hovind
Kent Hovind
Kent E. Hovind is an American young earth creationist. Hovind speaks on creation science and aims to convince listeners to reject theories of evolution, geophysics, and cosmology in favor of the Genesis creation narrative as found in the Bible...
, Jonathan Sarfati
Jonathan Sarfati
Jonathan D. Sarfati is a former New Zealand national chess champion and creationist author with a PhD in chemistry. Sarfati works for Creation Ministries International , formerly part of Answers in Genesis , a non-profit Christian Apologetics ministry specialising in Young-Earth creationism...
, Bolton Davidheiser, Lambert Dolphin, and Creation Ministries International
Creation Ministries International
Creation Ministries International is a non-profit young Earth creationist organisation of autonomous Christian apologetics ministries that promote a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis...
for his day-age creation version of Biblical creation.
See also
- Biblical cosmologyBiblical cosmologyThe various authors of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament provide glimpses of their views regarding cosmology.According to the Genesis creation narrative, the cosmos created by Elohim has three levels, with the habitable world in the centre, an underworld below and the heavens above...
- Genesis creation narrative
- Creator god
- Dating CreationDating CreationCultures throughout history have attempted to date the beginning of the the world in the past, so methods of dating Creation have involved analysing scriptures or ancient texts.-Ancient creation dates:...
- Timeline of the Universe
- Age of the EarthAge of the EarthThe age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years This age is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples...
- anthropic principleAnthropic principleIn astrophysics and cosmology, the anthropic principle is the philosophical argument that observations of the physical Universe must be compatible with the conscious life that observes it. Some proponents of the argument reason that it explains why the Universe has the age and the fundamental...
- astronomyAstronomyAstronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
- cosmologyCosmologyCosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
- Fine-tuned universeFine-tuned universeThe fine-tuned universe is the proposition that the conditions that allow life in the Universe can only occur when certain universal fundamental physical constants lie within a very narrow range, so that if any of several fundamental constants were only slightly different the universe would be...
External links
- Reasons to Believe official web page
- Official Biography on Reasons to Believe