Reasons to Believe
Reasons to Believe (RTB) is a progressive creationist group that promotes day-age forms of old Earth creationism. It was founded in 1986 by Hugh Ross, a Canadian-born astrophysicist and creationist Christian apologist. About. Based in Los Angeles, the mission of RTB is to demonstrate that "sound reason and scientific research—including the very latest discoveries—consistently support, rather than erode, confidence in the truth of the Bible and faith in the personal, transcendent God revealed in both Scripture and nature." Reasons to Believe has 26 books published by Christian book publisher Baker Publishing. They have  also written hundreds of articles on the topic. RTB has held events all over the world. They have also produced many DVDs, TV shows, audio CDs, MP3s, podcasts, streaming media events and teleconferences. Their "Science News Flash" reviews news headlines of scientific discoveries. RTB educational programs include both credit and non credit classes. Views. RTB claims to have a scientific model predicting an increase in astronomical evidence that Earth resides at the ideal location in the cosmos for both harboring advanced civilization and technology and making the universe observable. Nontheistic models predict that astronomical discoveries will show that Earth is  unremarkable for both habitability and observation. The RTB model predicts that future anthropological and genetic research will increasingly confirm that humans are biologically distinct rather than descended from a hominid species. It predicts stronger evidence for humanity's genetic, anatomical, and behavioral uniqueness. It places the earliest hominids at 6.5 million years ago and the first humans at around fifty thousand years ago. RTB also predicts that the flood of Noah was a local event. There is some evidence for a large flood in modern day Iraq around 2900 BCE. Criticism. Scientific models help researchers organize information into a conceptual  structure to understand and interpret data, ask good questions, and identify anomalies. Famous scientific models include Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution. Some have claimed RTB's testable creation model fails to meet the modern qualifications for a scientific theory or model and just looks at known things and claims them as predictions. In a review of an updated edition of "Who Was Adam: A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Humanity" (2015) by Ross and Fazale Rana, research psychologist Brian Bolton argues against the scientific status of the RTB model. Bolton  sees violations of scientific logic in the form of immunity to falsification, the assumption of supernatural causation, a lack of independent evaluations of evidence, circular reasoning, and the false equivalence of biblical creationism (faith-based) and human evolution (evidence-based) as scientific explanations. The RTB claim that all current humans are descended from a specially created couple that lived about 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, at the time of the explosion of music, art, jewelry, and that there is no common ancestor between humans and other primates is disputed in a scholarly essay by evangelical geneticist Dennis Venema. There is  strong genetic and fossil evidence suggesting a common ape-man ancestor as well.