Hugh Ross, an apologist, author, and founder of ‘Reasons to Believe,’ shared some of his most recent findings regarding the earth’s current conditions in an ‘ice age cycle,’ and how it points to an intelligent Creator, at an apologetics seminar that took place on Friday evening at a Christian school in Los Angeles.
Ross started out with the question, “What does it take for billions of humans to be redeemed?” He argued that the world is currently in an ice age cycle, and that this further points to an intelligent Creator who designed the specific time period and conditions to be able to carry out his plan for salvation and redemption.
Ross described an ‘ice age cycle’ as a period of time in which the earth is transitioning from having “a lot of ice, to not a lot of ice,” and explained that the current conditions are optimal for having advanced human life on earth. For instance, he said that the sun is currently in the middle of its burning history, allowing it to “have the luminosity stability and the low flaring conditions” for humans to be able to live a stable and advanced life on earth.
“With the sun being as bright as it is, we should have no ice at all,” said Ross, and added, “but we do have ice," due to a series of what Ross called “tectonic miracles” that allows ice to build up and be stored.
One of those “tectonic miracles” include the shift of Antarctica. After it broke off from Australia, Ross said, it attached to South America, from which it again broke off and drifted south, causing “a circulation of water around Antarctica and [cooling] it to facilitate a buildup of ice.” Another such example Ross gave was the breaking off of the Indian subcontinent from Madagascar and its subsequent “crash” into the Asian continent. This, Ross said, “forced up the ground to form the Himalayans,” a crash which is still ongoing and causing the Himalayans to get taller by 5 centimeters each year.
Hugh Ross, astronomer, speaker, and author of numerous apologetics books, spoke at an apologetics seminar in Los Angeles on Friday.
“And because the sun is as bright as it is, we have the stability we need to engage in larger forms of agriculture,” he added. Though the unstable climate of most of earth’s history led people groups to engage in smaller scale agriculture, said Ross, the earth has seen stable temperatures over the past 9,000 years, allowing for a few humans to engage in larger-scale farming and for most others to have the freedom to not engage in agriculture at all and instead focus their energy on technology or thought.
“God allowed this so that people can hear and believe the good news of salvation,” Ross said.
After the talk, Ross answered questions from the audience of mostly students from elementary to high school such as, “Are dinosaurs real?” “How can you scientifically prove miracles?” “What do you think about evolution?”
To the question, “Are there any discoveries that shook you?” Ross said that there “will always be anomalies.”
“In any model, there will be things that do not fit. But as you further your research, pay attention to whether those anomalies get smaller as you resolve them, or if the resolution of anomalies create even more anomalies,” Ross said.
He encouraged the students to “never stop asking questions and pursuing your doubts.”
“As it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:21,” Ross said, “Test everything. Hold fast to what proves to be good.”
Ross’ two-hour apologetics seminar was attended by some 200, and took place at New Covenant Academy, a Christian K-12 school located in Los Angeles.
