POtHS - Kent Hovind - Speaks From Prison - Real Reason for Conviction

Kent E. Hovind (born January 15, 1953) is an American young Earth creationist and conspiracy theorist. Hovind has spoken on creation science and has aimed to convince listeners to reject scientific theories of evolution, geophysics, and cosmology in favor of his interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative from the Bible. Hovind's views are contradicted by scientific evidence and some of his ideas have also been criticized by young Earth creationist organizations such as Answers in Genesis.

Hovind established Creation Science Evangelism in 1991, and frequently spoke on young Earth creationism at seminars at private schools and churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts. Since January 2007, Hovind has been serving a ten-year prison sentence after being convicted of 58 federal counts, including 12 tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and 45 counts of structuring cash transactions. He is facing new federal charges and is in the Santa Rosa County Jail in Florida.

Biography

On February 9, 1969, at the age of 16, Hovind became a born-again Christian,[2] becoming an Independent Fundamental Baptist.[3] In 1971, he graduated from East Peoria Community High School. He holds four degrees in Christian education and Christian ministry (1974, 1988, 1991, 2013) from unaccredited institutions. In 1989, he moved to Pensacola, Florida[4] with his wife. Hovind has three adult children and five grandchildren. Since 1999, one of his sons, Eric Hovind, travels doing creationist presentations using his father's arguments and seminars.[5][6]

Between 1975 and 1988, Hovind served as an assistant pastor and teacher at three private Baptist schools, including one he started.[2] In 1991, Hovind started Creation Science Evangelism.[7] In 1998, Hovind created his Dr. Dino web site and began producing articles and selling video tapes, books, and fossil replicas, which in 2003 alone merchandise sales earned Hovind $1,657,329 in income.[8] Prior to his convictions, Hovind spoke at churches, private schools, and other venues each year. Hovind also hosted a daily internet radio talk show and has established Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida.
Education

In 1971, he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois. From 1972 to 1974, Hovind attended the non-accredited Midwestern Baptist College and received a Bachelor of Religious Education.[2]
Patriot University

In 1988 and 1991 respectively, Hovind was awarded a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from the non-accredited Patriot University in Colorado Springs, Colorado (now Patriot Bible University in Del Norte, Colorado, which no longer offers this program).[9] Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Hovind presents his education and credentials. Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation-evolution controversy, wrote that Hovind's lack of academic training makes it impossible to engage him on a professional level.[10]

Patriot Bible University is a diploma mill, as it has unreasonably low graduation requirements, lack of sufficient faculty or educational standards, and a suspicious tuition scheme.[11][12] The school's current policies allow students to attain bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and Doctor of Ministry degrees in months, rather than years, for as little as $37 per credit.[13][14]

Bartelt has stated that Hovind's doctoral dissertation is evidence of the poor requirements at Patriot and that Hovind lacks knowledge of basic science.[15] She noted that Hovind's dissertation is incomplete (it contains four chapters totaling 101 pages, but Hovind's introduction claims the work is 250 pages with 16 chapters), of low academic quality, with poor writing, poor spelling, and poor grammatical style. Bartelt asserts that pages are repeated, references are absent, and it is not an original work with original ideas.[15]

In the past, when questioned about his education and qualifications, Hovind has said his critics use ad hominem arguments,[9] and Patriot has issued similar comments.[16] In 2010, Patriot responded to Wikileaks' claim to have revealed Hovind's dissertation, writing that the Wikileaks file was not the "finished" product, but because they do not "retain ownership to student thesis’ [sic] or dissertations, as is commonly practiced by many schools", they "cannot release student work to the public".[17] Patriot will not send copies of Hovind's doctoral dissertation, which is unusual for an institution to do since dissertations are made available to the public.[15] As a general rule, doctoral dissertations are published by the associated university and made available to the public, so that other students conducting research in similar areas may use the information in the dissertation as a reference.[15] Bartelt wrote that the copy she viewed is on file at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), but the organization cannot distribute it due to copyright restrictions.[15] The NCSE's copy was received from Skip Evans, who obtained Hovind's dissertation from Patriot with Hovind's permission in March 1999.[15]
Creation Science Evangelism and Creation Today

According to Kent Hovind, he started Creation Science Evangelism (CSE) in 1991[7] (later he said it was created in 1989[2][18]) to evangelize people by teaching them creationism. During his 2006 criminal trial, the federal government said the organization does not have the proper licensing nor is it registered as a nonprofit, which resulted in legal troubles mentioned below. In May 1999, Eric Hovind, Kent Hovind's son, joined Creation Science Evangelism and his daughter, Marlissa, was training to become Kent Hovind's secretary.[6] Then in January 2007, Kent Hovind was sentenced to ten years in prison following his 58 felony convictions and Eric Hovind announced that he would run Creation Science Evangelism due to his father's incarceration.[19] After finishing high school at Pensacola Christian Academy in 1996,[20] Eric Hovind attended Jackson Hole Bible College[21] a one-year[22] non-accredited institution,[23][24] despite Kent Hovind's objections to Jackson Hole's Gap creationism and Day-age creationism teaching.[25] In November 2007, Eric Hovind, on behalf of God Quest Inc., filed to do business under the trade name Creation Science Evangelism with Florida.[26] Just months earlier, in July 2007 God Quest Inc. was incorporated by Eric Hovind (listed as president), Scott Porter (listed as treasurer), Bill Nadolny, and Stephen Lawwell.[27] Additionally, in 2010 Eric Hovind and Chad Hovind registered Godonomics LLC in the State of Florida.[28]

In February 2008, Eric Hovind signed a letter on behalf of God Quest Ministries for the Florida Family Policy Council to the Florida Board of Education opposing the statement: "Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence."[29] In June 2008, Eric announced that the CSE website would incorporate the CSE blog and change format allowing for "only positive comments" about Hovind and CSE.[30] During the 2008 election, CSE issued political articles for evangelical voters and linked to material by David Barton.[31]

In March 2012, the federal government sued Creation Science Evangelism asking the court to declare, as null and void, certain liens putatively placed by Hovind's organizations on property seized by the federal government for taxes.[32] In June, the court found in favor of the government.[32] In May 2013, Hovind filed several lis pendens' asking they be "recorded" as liens claiming that the property is "presently being the subject of a forfeiture action in violation of Kent E Hovind's due process rights under the 4th and 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution."[33] In October 2013, a federal judge ruled "the court finds that the lis pendens are null and void ab initio" and "To ensure that the lis pendens' nullity is recognized, the court shall require plaintiff to file this Order in the public records of Escambia County, Florida."[34]

Subsequently in late 2011, Creation Science Evangelism's DrDino.com website was redirected to CreationToday.org, which was described by Kyle Winkler, in CSE's newsletter, as part of "a new brand name" and "transition" to a new website.[35][36] The new website announced "Creation Today is a ministry of God Quest, Inc." with focus on "creation, apologetics and evangelism."[37]
Dinosaur Adventure Land
Entrance to the park
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dinosaur Adventure Land.

In 2001, Hovind started Dinosaur Adventure Land, a young Earth creationist theme park located behind Hovind's home in Pensacola, Florida. The park depicts humans and dinosaurs co-existing in the last 4,000–6,000 years and also contains a depiction of the Loch Ness monster.[38] Dinosaurs are central to Hovind's website and creation advocacy because "the creation world view says dinosaurs have always lived with man and there might still be a few alive today."[39] A 2004 Skeptical Inquirer article explored visiting Hovind's dinosaur theme park and concluded that the park is "deceptive on many levels".[40] The Southern Poverty Law Center noted the park also "claims that a few small dinosaurs still roam the planet."[41] George Allan Alderman wrote it was "essentially a playground with a few exhibits, several fiberglass dinosaurs, a climbing wall, and a couple of buildings."[42] He said it can be "summed [up] in a word: shabby. The dinosaurs looked shabby, the displays were shabby, the attractions and activities were shabby, and above all the ideas were shabby."[42]

The venture has encountered legal issues, as the owners failed to acquire a building permit for the park (see below). In 2008 Eric Hovind and Glen Stoll attempted to prevent the forfeitures of Hovind's ten properties, including Dinosaur Adventure Land, in connection with Kent Hovind's federal tax problems.[43] The government sought the property, deeded to Stoll and Eric prior to Hovind's convictions, since cash that Hovind withdrew from his bank accounts cannot be recovered. In July 2009, the courts ruled that the properties could be seized and sold to satisfy Hovind's federal tax debts.[44] On August 24, 2009, Dinosaur Adventure Land's website announced it was "closed until further notice".[45] In November 2010, CSE announced the "re-opening" of the "Creation Store" in central Pensacola".[46]

$250,000 offer

According to Hovind, he offered $10,000 in 1990[95] and later raised the amount to $250,000 for:[96]

I have a standing offer of $250,000 to anyone who can give any empirical evidence (scientific proof) for evolution.* My $250,000 offer demonstrates that the hypothesis of evolution is nothing more than a religious belief.[96]
*NOTE: When I use the word evolution, I am not referring to the minor variations found in all of the various life forms (microevolution). I am referring to the general theory of evolution which believes these five major events took place without God:

1. Time, space, and matter came into existence by themselves.
2. Planets and stars formed from space dust.
3. Matter created life by itself.
4. Early life-forms learned to reproduce themselves.
5. Major changes occurred between these diverse life forms (i.e., fish changed to amphibians, amphibians changed to reptiles, and reptiles changed to birds or mammals).

Since Kent Hovind's 2007 prison sentence, Creation Science Evangelism has removed the offer from its website without explanation and describes the "five events" simply as "tenets of evolution."[97]

Critics view this offer to be spurious because of the conditions which Hovind imposes. The 'theory of evolution' as defined by Hovind covers not only the process of evolution but also abiogenesis, astrophysics, and cosmology.[98] Also, unlike Hovind, scientists in the field of evolutionary biology do not distinguish between micro- and macro-evolution as distinct processes, instead contending that evolution takes place as microevolution, and that macroevolution is cumulative microevolution.[99]

Critics argue that the offer is merely a publicity stunt designed to be impossible to win because it requires the claimant to disprove all possible theories for the origin of species, no matter how ridiculous.[98] His FAQ states that claimants must "prove beyond reasonable doubt that the process of evolution ... is the only possible way the observed phenomena could have come into existence."[96]

Hovind has said a panel of judges would decide if a claim had met his criteria, but he has refused to say who would be (or is) on that panel, or what their qualifications might be. Challengers who have submitted claims to Hovind say they have become convinced that he does not actually use a panel of judges, in spite of his promise to do so.[100] In one case, after twice stating that he would send a particular response to his judges (according to his website any responses he sent were considered "legitimate"[96]), Hovind stated, "Thanks for reminding me about not sending minor changes to the committee. This would be a waste of time for everyone involved. If you ever get any evidence that does support evolution please send it to me". The respondent felt that this indicated dishonesty on Hovind's part and confirmed public suspicions that he never intended to pay.[101] People have approached Hovind in regard to the challenge, addressing it from perspectives ranging from "Large-scale Evolution" to the Big Bang[102] to polar bears.[101]

In 2001, biologist Massimo Pigliucci attempted to collect Hovind's prize.[103] During a debate with Hovind, Pigliucci said Hovind did not send any details or names of scientists judging the evidence and Hovind "could have decided on his own" to dismiss the evidence.[104] Pigliucci later issued a "counter-challenge" as "a spoof meant to uncover Hovind's challenge for the gimmick that it is" by asking for "empirical evidence, that Christianity is the only true religion and that a god with the exact characteristics of the one(s) described in the bible actually exists".[105]

The winter 2005 issue of Skeptic included an article titled "Doubting Dr. Dino" by Adam Kisby.[102] Kisby lays out Hovind's arguments in formal logic, and says that the assumptions "God is a necessary cause of the universe" and "The universe is eternal, i.e., un-caused" lead to contradictions. Kisby sent his proof to Hovind and reports that "many weeks later I received a terse reply from Hovind in which he dogmatically rejected my proof." Hovind's reason was "the universe is evidence of a Designer – not proof there is no Designer." Kisby concluded "I contend that either my proof is technically correct or Hovind's $250,000 offer is fundamentally flawed. If my proof is correct, then Hovind is constrained by the terms of his offer to release the money. On the other hand if Hovind's offer is flawed then he is morally obligated to withdraw it or modify it."[102] The Spring 2006 issue of Skeptic contained criticisms of Kisby's proposed proof.[106]

Hovind has repeatedly declined written debates where his claims would be scrutinized by scientists, for example, when offered by Dave Thomas.[107]

Some creationist groups also do not approve of Hovind's offer. Answers in Genesis said it "would prefer that 'creationists' refrained from gimmicks like this."