(A Response by Humphreys to some questionable claims made by Hugh Ross in his newsletter)
Dear Dr. Ross:
Thank you for your December 1, 1998 letter, and for telling me the main motive you and Mr. Conner had for criticizing me: to save me “unnecessary public embarrassment.” You will be glad to know that you may cease your diligent efforts to spare my reputation—I’m not embarrassed!
I’m glad your letter acknowledges that you had not previously corresponded with me since 1993. However, your recent newsletter article still seems to be a bit confused about that matter:
“Subsequently I asked three university professors (a particle physicist, a string theorist, and a specialist in general relativity) and a doctoral candidate ... All four joined me in asking Humphreys to withdraw the book ...”
When, precisely, did all four ask me? Never by personal communication. By published article? The relativist, Don Page, and the grad student, Samuel Conner, published one such criticism in the September 1995 Bible-Science News, a layman’s publication. But it did not mention the other two you cited, the particle physicist and the string theorist. I’ve never heard from them. Who are they?
Next, your newsletter article said:
“After only a few months of written exchange between this group and Humphreys, the latter refused to continue the exchange.”
Exactly when did I make the alleged refusal? I know of none. I answered the September 1995 Conner-Page criticism with an article of my own in the same issue. From then until last summer, I heard of no other publication and had no personal communication from Conner and Page, or from the alleged other two, or from you. As for the Conner-Page criticism of last summer in the Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal (a scientific publication), I answered it with an article of my own in the same issue. I plan to answer any future letter Conner or Page may succeed in getting published. Thus far, I’ve responded to every public scientific challenge.
In all this, it seems strange to me that you yourself have stayed out of the technical arena. Your principal champion has been a grad student who has not, after many years, earned a Ph.D. His co-author seems to have been so uninvolved as to allow Conner’s blunders to pass into print unchecked. The “other two” professors seem to be anonymous, or not there at all.
Now since you have a Ph.D. in astronomy, why should you allow others, particularly a grad student, to fight your technical battles for you? Why have you never personally ventured into a technical journal with your criticisms of my cosmology? I challenge you to do so.
Sincerely in Christ,
D. Russell Humphreys, Ph.D.
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