Examining World Religions summary

Scientific skeptic Hugh Ross wanted to prove through scientific means that the world religions are humanly crafted frauds. So, he decided to be honest and would look at the holy books of the religions.

First, he looked at the Hindu Vedas and found several scientific absurdities like time being eternal and about the moon and the planets. The general rule of thumb the author was using is that when we look at the cosmos—in fact when we look out in any field of scientific endeavor—we discover consistency, beauty and harmony. There’s freedom from contraction. So, his assumption was that if the God that created the universe decided to communicate with us humans in a direct fashion, that communication would have those same characteristics. But for things of human origin, we can expect human feelings and ideas to creep in, and that’s what he looked for. He looked for those human perspectives.

Second, Mr. Ross looked at the Buddhist texts and found they borrow a lot from the Hindu texts. So, he wasn’t satisfied with those texts.

Then, he looked at the Qur'an of the Islamic faith. He found it too esoteric. If you were one of the “enlightened ones” you could then understand the holy book. More frequently Mr. Ross found that the Qur'an places historical events in the wrong geographical location. Hope the author doesn’t travel anywhere in the Mideast if they read his essay.

Fourth, he looked at the Book of Mormon and found the founder Joseph Smith got some prophecies wrong. And the ones he did get right, newspaper reporters predicted too.

Finally, Mr. Ross looked at the Bible. He found no esoteric poetry, No hint of “hidden” meanings. Almost every statement in the Bible was scientifically testable. For example, in Genesis he found eleven creation events and three initial conditions. All put in the correct chronological sequence and all correctly described from a scientific perspective.  The author said the Genesis creation account reflected the scientific method. Mr. Ross read the entire Bible and couldn’t find any contradiction or provable error. 

Source: Hugh Ross, "A Scientist Who Looked and was Found,” A Place for Truth, ed. Dallas Willard (2010).