Astrophysicist Hugh Ross earned his B.S in physics from the University of British Columbia and his M.S and Ph.D in astronomy from the University of Toronto. For several years he worked in research as a post-doctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology, he currently serves as president of Reasons To Believe, a non-profit scientific apologetics corporation. The reasons Ross has for his faith in Christ were not bestowed upon him by his parents or given him by Sunday school, he became convinced of them through a long process of investigation and evaluation.
Raised in a non-religious and hard working home, Hugh Ross became interested in Astronomy at an early age. His father helped him build his own telescope at the age of eight and it wasn’t long before the young stargazer began to dazzle his school teachers with his in-depth knowledge of the cosmos. By the time Ross was sixteen he was giving public lectures on astronomy and at seventeen he became the director of observations for the Vancouver branch of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
Ross came to understand that the only reasonable explanation for the existence of the universe as we know it was some form of Big Bang theory. He drew the conclusion that if the universe had a beginning then it must have a Beginner; an uncaused cause outside of the cosmos itself. Though Ross did not doubt the existence of God from this point on he was sure that this Beginner was no longer involved in the affairs of this world.
“Surely, I reasoned, a God who built a universe of more than ten-billion-trillion stars would not concern Himself with events on an insignificant speck of dust we call earth.”
Armed with his Copernican worldview he set out to disprove the validity of the great world religions in their assumptions concerning God and the cosmos.
“Knowing that the European philosophers of the Enlightenment largely discounted religion, I first looked for insight from their works. What I discovered, however, were circular arguments, inconsistencies, contradictions and evasions.”
Ross then set out to investigate the holy books of the major world religions to see if there was any correlation to be found between them and the evidences presented by cosmology and astro-physics.
“I figured if God, the Creator, was speaking through any of these books (I presumed He was not), then the communication would be noticeably different from what human beings write. I reasoned that if humans invented a religion, their message would contain errors and inconsistencies, but if the Creator communicated, His message would reflect His supernature. I chose history and science as good ways to test the revelations on which various religions are based.”
As Ross began to work his way through some of these holy books his initial suspicions were confirmed; they did not map accurately onto a modern historiographical and scientific understanding of the cosmos.
“I found statements clearly at odds with established history and science. I also noted a writing style best described as esoteric, mysterious and vague. The sophistry and incongruity with established facts seemed opposite to the Creator’s character as suggested to me by nature.”
This was until Ross picked up a copy of the Bible. Surprised by the simple, yet direct style of the book of Genesis Ross’s initial presuppositions were shaken.
“The book’s distinctives struck me immediately. I was amazed with the quantity of historical and scientific reference and with the detail in them. It took me a whole evening just to investigate the first chapter. Instead of a bizarre creation myth, here was a journal-like record of the earths initial conditions – correctly described from the standpoint of astrophysics and geophysics.”
Ross’s study of the Bible, which he expected to take around four weeks instead took him eighteen months! At the end of his studies he arrived at a conclusion that he hadn’t anticipated.
“I had to admit to myself that I had been unsuccessful in finding a single provable error or contradiction. This is not to say there were not any passages in the Bible I did not understand or problems I could not resolve. The problems and passages I couldn’t yet understand didn’t discourage me, however, for I faced the same kinds of things in the record of nature. But, just as with the record of nature, I was impressed with how much could be understood and resolved.”
“I was now convinced that the Bible was supernaturally accurate and thus supernaturally inspired. It’s perfection could only come from the Creator Himself. I also recognised that Bible stood alone in revealing God and His dealings with humans from a perspective that demanded more than just the dimensions we mortals experience (length, width, height and time). Since humans cannot visualise phenomena in dimensions they cannot experience, finding these ideas in the Bible also argued for a superhuman author.”
Perhaps the final nail in the coffin of Ross’s unbelief was the mathematical improbability of the chance fulfilment of prophecies by specific people at specific times. For more information on this read my post on the Mathematical Case for Christ. With the help of skeptical friends Ross calculated that the chances of just thirteen of these biblical predictions about specific people being true without supernatural intervention was less than one chance in 10 to the power of 138. Considering that there is roughly a one in 10 to the power of 80 chance of a sudden reversal in the second law of thermodynamics (entropy) that would mean that the Bible was 10 to the power of 58 more reliable!
“Acknowledging that my life depended moment by moment on the reliability of the second law of thermodynamics, I saw that my only rational option was to trust in the Bible’s Inspirer to at least the same degree as I relied on the laws of physics.”
After a long evening studying the salvation passages of the New Testament Ross finally surrendered his life to Jesus.
“I humbled myself before God, asking Him to forgive me of my self-exaltation and all the offences resulting from it, and committed myself to follow His directives for my life. At 1:06 in the morning I signed my name on the back page of my Gideon Bible, stating that I had received Christ as my Lord and Saviour.”
“All of the scientific and historical evidences I had collected deeply rooted my confidence in the veracity of the Bible and convinced me that the Creator had indeed communicated through this holy book. I went on to become an astronomer, and my investigations into both the cosmos and the Bible have shown me a more wondrous, personal God behind nature than I could ever have imagined.”
By Graham Phillips
Source
The Creator of the Cosmos – Hugh Ross, Ph.D
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