*Additional resources are available at the bottom of this article.

Six years ago, a small group of opponents of the traditional historical view of Genesis (i.e. that it means what it says!) declared a ’holy war’ on Starlight and Time, my book about a creationist cosmology (see below, right).¹ Their leader is Hugh Norman Ross, whose apologetics organization ’Reasons to Believe’ markets a theology heavily based on the Big Bang theory (as well as geological uniformitarianism).

The saga begins with Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which is well supported by experiment. Dr Ross assumes that general relativity can lead to only one cosmology, the Big Bang theory and its billions of years. But my book offers a counter-example … a relativistic cosmology that fits into the Biblical timescale of thousands of years.

Believing that secular academia cannot be so wrong, Ross thinks the Biblical account of creation must be ’re-interpreted’ to accommodate a Big Bang. He claims the days of creation should be understood as long ages of time.² In contrast, Starlight and Time demonstrates that we can understand Scripture straightforwardly and explain the astronomical observations, leaving no room for billions of years. It further shows that the Bible contradicts the central assumption of Big Bang cosmology, the Copernican Principle.³ See the Answers in Genesis Q&A sections on Astronomy and Genesis.

Starlight and Time did not mention Ross, but he correctly saw it as a threat to his organization, so in 1994 he started the negative publicity campaign I call ’Starlight Wars’.

The Tech Journal debate

The Rossites launched their first attacks in lay publications, such as Ross’s own newsletter⁴ and a creationist newsletter.⁵ I published answers to each attack.^6,7 Then, in 1997, they switched to a better arena for scientific debates, the peer-reviewed Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal. It has published both sides of the debate once a year since then. Here is a chronicle of those clashes. There is a brief summary for each debate with the entirety available in pdf format.⁸

Another long-ager, Dr Perry G. Phillips who is trained in astrophysics and theology, objected … not specifically to my science, but rather to my theology.⁹ He claimed that interpreting Scripture straightforwardly would lead us to incorrect scientific conclusions, for example with Joshua’s ’long day’ (Joshua 10:13).

See his position. 6 pages.

I pointed out¹⁰ an ironic flaw in Phillips’s argument. His Ross-style interpretation had caused him to overlook modern science in that very passage (see also Q&A: Galileo, Geocentricism, and Joshua's Long Day).

See my response. 3 pages.

Finally, Dr Jonathan Sarfati rebutted Phillips’s arguments point by point.¹¹

See his rebuttal. 4 pages.

1998

Two Rossites, Samuel R. Conner and Don N. Page, submitted a long technical-looking critique,¹² charging that the cosmology of Starlight and Time ’is actually only a trivial variant of the standard Big Bang model.’ Their main argument was that gravitational forces in the Big Bang model are the same as in my model. They tried to prove that matter evenly dispersed through an infinite space would fall toward a point that, in their drawings, resembles a center. A secondary argument was that, because my choice of time coordinate is not to their taste, my model’s gravitational time dilation does not apply to physical clocks.

See their arguments. 21 pages.

To their main argument, I replied that they had overlooked that the Big Bang model has no center of mass, thus no center of gravity and no gravitational time dilation.¹³ My model has all three. To underscore the problem with their falling-matter proof, I quoted Nobel Laureate cosmologist Steven Weinberg:

On their secondary argument, I clarified my time coordinate, and I pointed out a simple equation that supports my book’s picture of time dilation in a white-hole cosmos, concluding:

My reply unveiled a newer type of time dilation, showing that early in the white hole’s expansion, clocks would be completely stopped throughout a shrinking volume of space around the center. I quoted a 1997 paper by respected relativists Charles Hellaby, Ariel Sumeruk and George Ellis supporting such a timeless zone in a white hole.¹⁶

See my reply. 14 pages.

1999

Writing without Page, Conner ignored his problems with a center and the quotes by Weinberg and Hellaby, Sumeruk, and Ellis.¹⁷

See his position. 7 pages.

He tried to disprove timeless zones. My rebuttal¹⁸ exposed what he ignored, including a comment and footnote in my 1998 paper that derail his attempted proof.¹⁹

See this debate. 18 pages. (scroll down to page 11)

Hugh Ross entered the fray personally,²⁰ attacking not my science, but my character. While he failed to cite documents and dates, my reply²¹ did so, refuting all his charges.

See this debate. 5 pages.

K.J. Duff, a retired solid-state theorist and long ager, alleged²² I overlooked elementary principles of general relativity theory. I rebutted²³ each allegation by quoting statements in textbooks and my papers that Duff had overlooked.

See this debate. 4 pages.

2000

Conner and Page tried to confuse the issue of centers and used circular reasoning to try to disprove the timeless zone, again ignoring the Weinberg and Hellaby-Sumeruk-Ellis quotes.²⁴ My reply clarified what ’center’ means, exposed their circular reasoning, and again pointed out what they had ignored.²⁵

See this debate. 8 pages.

Next I supported my book’s time dilation by citing a paper by Martin Harwit in the Astrophysical Journal.²⁶ Harwit showed that even using Conner’s preferred time coordinate, real time dilation of physical clocks occurs at an event horizon. That renders irrelevant all the Rossite quibbles about time coordinates.

Long-agers E.D. Fackerell and C.B.G. McIntosh, two of the reviewers of the 1998 exchange, added nothing new.²⁷ My rejoinder exhorted them to catch up with the controversy.²⁸

See this debate. 5 pages.

Help for the confused reader

The Rossites chose tactics that confuse the non-expert reader, in order to leave him depending on their professed academic authority. Most of their equations only regurgitate standard textbook proofs whose conclusions they could simply have cited. If I had not replied on a technical level, non-experts might have assumed I was not knowledgeable on the issues. Unfortunately, my technical responses leave the average reader in a quandary about who is correct.

However, my quotes of experts from the secular astrophysics literature may help you. Without intending to, these experts support all my major points. Weinberg shows that the crux of the Conner-Page argument is wrong.¹⁴ Hellaby, Sumeruk and Ellis show that a white hole can occur naturally and contain a timeless zone.¹⁶ Harwit shows that real time dilation of physical clocks occurs in my type of cosmology.²⁶ The Rossites have steadfastly ignored my challenges to comment on the first two citations (the third being more recent). Their silence seems to endorse Starlight and Time.

References:

1. D.R. Humphreys, Starlight and Time, Master Books, Green Forest, Arkansas, 1994. For an excellent summary, see chapter 5 of The Updated and Expanded Answers Book, D. Batten (ed.), K. Ham, J. Sarfati and C. Wieland, Answers in Genesis, Brisbane, 1999; see online chapter. 
2. M. Van Bebber and P.S. Taylor, Creation and Time: A Report on the Progressive Creationist Book by Hugh Ross, Eden Productions,Mesa, Arizona, pp. 25–40, 1994; see online chapters. 
3. Humphreys, Ref. 1, pp. 86–89. 
4. H.N. Ross, 1995, Progress towards resolution of the creation-date controversy, Facts and Faith, 9(1):12–13. 
5. S.R. Conner and D.N. Page, Light-travel time in Starlight and Time, Bible-Science News, 33(7):12–16, 1995. 
6. D.R. Humphreys, An open letter to Hugh Ross, Bible-Science News, 33(4):21–22, 1995. 
7. D.R. Humphreys, How we can see a young universe, Bible-Science News, 33(7):12–19, 1995. 
8. Starlight Wars , ICR website, 2001.
9. P.G. Phillips, D. Russell Humphreys’ cosmology and the ’Timothy Test’, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal,11(2):189–194, 1997. 
10. D.R. Humphreys, Timothy tests theistic evolutionism, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 11(2):199–201, 1997. 
11. J.D. Sarfati, D. Russell Humphreys’ cosmology and the ’Timothy Test’: a reply, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 11(2):195–198, 1997. 
12. S.R. Conner and D.N. Page, Starlight and Time is the Big Bang, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 12(2):174–194, 1998. 
13. D. R. Humphreys, New vistas of space-time rebut the critics, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 12(2):195–212, 1998. 
14. S. Weinberg, The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe, 2^nd paper edition, Basic Books (Harper-Collins), New York, p. 32, 1993. 
15. Humphreys, ref. 13, p. 203, third sentence below eq. (20). 
16. C. Hellaby, A. Sumeruk, and G.F.R. Ellis, Classical signature change in the black hole topology, International Journal of Modern Physics, D6(2):211–238, (p. 235), 1997. 
17. S.R. Conner, Vistas … one more, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 13(1):56–58, 1999. 
18. D.R. Humphreys, Russell Humphreys replies, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, (scroll down to page 11) 13(1):59–60, 1999.
19. Humphreys, ref. 13, p. 208 (last paragraph of section 10) and p.212 (ref. 63).
20. H.N. Ross, Humphreys’ new vistas of space, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 13(1):49–50, 1999.
21. D.R. Humphreys, Russell Humphreys replies, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 13(1):50–52, 1999. .
22. K.J. Duff, More on vistas, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 13(1):53–54, 1999. 
23. D.R. Humphreys, Russell Humphreys replies, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 13(1):54–55, 1999. 
24. S.R. Conner and D.N. Page, Starlight … time and again, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 14(2):69–73, 2000. 
25. D.R Humphreys, Starlight and time: a response, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 14(2):73–76, 2000. 
26. M. Harwit, Time and its evolution in an inhomogeneous universe, Astrophysical Journal, 447:482–490, 1995. Not being interested specifically in time at the event horizon, Harwit does not state its behavior explicitly in words. However, his eq.(11) relates (A) the rate of a clock moving with the surface of an expanding (or contracting) dust cloud to (B) the rate of a clock co-moving with the inner surface of an expanding shell of dust much further away. In the equation, when the radius r_vi of the first clock becomes equal to the Schwarzschild radius r_s, the rate of the first clock becomes zero, as measured by the more distant second clock. This means that time dilation at the event horizon is a slowing of proper time as measured by co-moving physical clocks. It is not merely an alleged ’artefact’ of using Schwarzschild time. 
27. E.D. Fackerell and C.B.G. McIntosh, Errors in Humphreys’ cosmological model, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 14(2):77–80, 2000. 
28. D.R Humphreys, Errors in Humphreys’ cosmological model: Humphreys replies, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 14(2):81, 2000. 

Additonal Resources:

• Humphreys Responds to Hugh Ross
• Humphreys Challenges Hugh Ross
• Humphreys Defends Starlight and Time
• Dubious Apologetics of Hugh Ross
• Hugh Ross, ICR, and the Bible
• Hugh Ross, ICR, and Facts of Science