Kent Hovind

Calling creationism "science" ain't a crime, but cheating the taxman and assaulting your wife are.

The divine comedy Creationism

Running gags

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Jokes aside

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Blooper reel

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Evolutionism debunkers

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“”If evolution is true, you could not know that it’s true because your brain is nothing but chemicals. Think about that.

—Kent Hovind, a man claiming to teach sound science to kids

Kent E. Hovind (or, to use his full former academic title Kent E. Hovind, inmate #06452-017) (1953–) is a young Earth creationist, promoter of imminent millennialism, con man, professional liar, and convicted felon.

Hovind promotes Young Earth creationist and Christian dominionist views in lectures and videos sold or publicized through his Creation Science Evangelism organization, calling himself "Doctor Dino" (despite having no legitimate degree).

Hovind created The Hovind "Theory" to explain how the global flood got all the water — namely, a comet did it. Hovind then proceeded to ignore all scientific evidence on dinosaurs gathered this side of 1960. Not satisfied with this record of failure, in 2001, Hovind started Dinosaur Adventure Land, an amusement park in his backyard.

Hovind subscribes to strawman theory, which holds that the government can't touch you because "KENT HOVIND" and "Kent Hovind" aren't the same. No, really. This "sovereign American" nonsense (and his support of tax protesting) understandably hurt his case in court. Hovind also promotes numerous anti-government conspiracy theories, literally connecting "evolution, Communism, the New World Order, and the IRS", and has even sold books promoting anti-Semitism.

In November 2006, a federal jury found Kent guilty of several tax-related charges and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. Following Kent's imprisonment, his son Eric Hovind — who, although also a creationist, is notably more lucid and grounded in reality — took control of the businesses and remade them into God Quest Inc. (holding corporation), Creation Today (publishing house) and the Creation Store (money maker). Hovind was released from federal custody on 8 July 2015 with three years' probation and has restarted his creationist operation.

And, to ice the cake, he tried (and failed) to sue RationalWiki while in prison.

Qualifications, or lack thereof

The prestigious Patriot University campus

See the main article on this topic: Kent Hovind's doctoral dissertations

Hovind refers to himself as "Dr. Kent Hovind" or as "Dr. Dino" to provide a veneer of respectability to those who have not examined his education or background. He also claims to have "taught high school math and science" for fifteen years. These are less impressive than they sound: he obtained his doctorates by mail order and never taught at a school requiring accredited credentials.

As of 2013, Hovind claims four doctorates, in education, theology and biblical ministry with an honorary degree in divinity.

His first Ph.D., obtained before his vacation in Club Fed:

1. is from Patriot Bible University, a degree mill. Patriot sells doctorates for approximately $2,000.
2. is in "Christian education." Hovind is quiet about the "Christian" part, instead describing it merely as in "education."
3. is not recognized by any legitimate university, professional association, or governmental agency. Patriot Bible University only offers "programs which are religious in nature", and their "degrees or diplomas have no state recognition."
4. is officially unavailable to the public. Real doctoral dissertations are readily available through libraries or online. On December 9, 2009, Hovind's dissertation was uploaded to WikiLeaks, and that copy mirrors the substandard quality — with spelling and grammar mistakes typical of a high school student — previously described by the few who had read it.
5. was reviewed by only one person, Wayne Knight, the president of Patriot. In contrast, the standard practice for Ph.D. dissertations is four or five doctoral committee members.

His 2013 Doctorate of Biblical Ministry (D.Min) is also from Patriot. His dissertation was made for sale as an e-book, entitled What on Earth is about to Happen... for Heaven's Sake?: A Dissertation on End Times According to the Bible, and claims Jesus will return in 2028.

Hovind neglects to mention which institutions awarded the theological doctorate and honorary divinity doctorate, probably because — like the Patriot doctorates — they are also the educational equivalent of an online ordination by the Universal Life Church.

Hovind listed himself as "Dr." in the Pensacola phone book, which is unusual even for someone with a real M.D. or Ph.D. His blog, however, warned supporters that any mail addressed to "Dr. Kent Hovind" at the prison where he resided would be returned by the prison's mailroom staff.

When Hovind says he "taught high school math and science," he really means he taught children at three private Christian schools run out of churches (one of which he founded—by the way, good luck trying to verify his teaching record; internet search results turn up nothing). At no point did Hovind earn any recognized credentials that would allow him to teach at public school or any school that requires accreditation.

Despite having no scientific credentials or even an accredited degree, he presents himself as someone who understands the science of evolution better than people with advanced science degrees who research in labs and publish peer-reviewed papers. During his presentations, he sounds like an auctioneer or a used car salesman when he is attempting to make a point by getting his audience to buy a video or book from him. Many of his slideshows read like a top 10 list of commonly seen (and refuted) "evidences" for creationism that contain little to no actual data or proof. These arguments are interjected with painfully unfunny "jokes" and anecdotes, which are topped off with a healthy serving of mined quotes. And like any good creationist, he is not above (in fact seeming to enjoy) spreading the false claim that Darwin caused the Holocaust.

Many of Hovind's claims can be easily refuted by merely reading Hovind's alleged references or doing basic math. For example, in Thunderf00t's Why Do People Laugh at Creationists? series, Hovind is quoted as saying:

“”One drop of water will cover the world if you spread it real thin.

—Kent Hovind

Hovind's statement is off by a factor of one trillion. The surface area of the Earth is about 500,000,000 km² (or 5x10¹² m², which is 5x10³² angstroms squared), and the size of a water molecule ("the smallest identifiable unit into which a pure substance can be divided") is about 10 angstroms. To find out how much water you would need to coat the world in a monolayer of water, you divide the surface of the world by the water molecule; the result is that you would need a minimum of 150,000 tons of water. This is approximately 1,000,000,000,000 times Hovind's claim.

Besides his poor math skills, Hovind doesn't fare much better in biology or being honest about what scientific papers say. Hovind seeks to "debunk" carbon dating by citing scientific literature, but what he actually does is mine quotes, take material out of context, even inventing alleged quotes out of whole cloth. In Seminar 7: Questions and Answers, he speaks about a scientific paper, displaying this alleged quote on a slide:

“”One part of Dima [a baby frozen mammoth] was 40,000, another part was 26,000 and the ‘wood immediately around the carcass’ was 9-10,000.

—Slide used and discussed by Kent Hovind

In less than ten seconds, Hovind presents the quote and reference as evidence that radiometric dating doesn't work before quickly skipping to his next slide. If you check the claim, you will find that the quote does not actually exist, plus the article cited does not refer to the stated species, date or even the bloody continent. Sadly, many creationists take Hovind at his word and simply recycle his claims without checking the references.

However, there are some creationists who do investigate Hovind's claims, concluding that Hovind's statements do not stand up to scrutiny. For example, a Creation Ministries International article by Carl Wieland, Ken Ham and Jonathan Sarfati reported: "Kent Hovind’s document repeatedly misrepresents or misunderstands not only our article, but the issues themselves."

"Dr." Dino: Creationism & the Hovind "Theory"

One might say that Hovind's "Theory" is as much a "theory" as Kent is a "doctor".

Dinosaurs

See the main article on this topic: Dinosaur

True to his self-proclaimed nickname "Dr. Dino", Hovind has made dinosaurs a focal point in his preaching. However, aside from promoting the usual creationist mantra that dinosaurs and man coexisted before and shortly after the global flood, he goes far beyond simply the age of dinosaurs, and straight-up rejects most information postdating the Dinosaur Renaissance, a scientific revolution leading to the discovery that dinosaurs were not cold-blooded, sluggish Godzilla-like monsters, but were, in fact, warm-blooded and active animals with bird-like respiratory systems and sometimes sporting feathers.

He claims that birds are not descended from dinosaurs, and that the latter were in fact nothing more than cold-blooded "big lizards" that lived in Eden prior to the Flood, despite the fact that dinosaurs have little in common with true lizards. To give a specific example, he asserts that Triceratops was just a Jackson's chameleon with an oxygen boost allowing it to reach larger sizes.

He states that feathered dinosaurs are all "baloney" and that Archaeopteryx was nothing more than a perching bird, which raises the question as to whether or not he would consider dromaeosaurids ("raptors") like Deinonychus and Velociraptor as non-dinosaurs too, considering the skeleton of Archaeopteryx is basically a miniature version of theirs. And it's been confirmed since 2007 that Velociraptor had feathers too, though this info doesn't appear to have reached Hovind's son Eric, whose seminar Dinosaurs with Man includes featherless model "raptors" that look even more obsolete than the ones in the Creation Museum.

He is also a believer in the existence of several purported surviving plesiosaurs, including Nessie, the Zuiyo-maru carcass (later confirmed to have been a decomposing basking shark) and a large animal carcass discovered on Moore's Beach, California, in 1925, which was actually a rotting Baird's beaked whale.

The Hovind "Theory"

Like many creationists (e.g., NephilimFree and his Lunar bukkake hypothesis or Walt Brown's hydroplate theory), Hovind has developed his own interpretation of how the global flood came about, modestly naming his "theory" after himself.

According to him, a -300°F meteor on course for Earth fragmented; some pieces formed the rings around other planets or created Lunar craters. Some fragments reached Earth and formed the North and South Poles, freezing the mammoths on their feet. The impact broke through the firmament, cracked the planet's crust and released the "fountains of the deep", causing ice age-like conditions (even though the Bible never mentions Noah's world being in a deep freeze). In the later months of the flood, ocean basins and mountain ranges were formed by shifting "unstable plates". As the post-flood centuries passed, the ice receded and formed the oceans, which in turn absorbed more carbon dioxide and atmospheric radiation, thus shortening human lifespans.

Needless to say, there are numerous deal-breaking problems riddling Hovind's "theory". How a comet could provide so many trillions of gallons of water in extremely little time, without killing all living multicellular organisms, is a mystery. How Noah's Ark would survive raining space ice is, too, a mystery. And even the existence of a "firmament" should be immediately laughable.

Creation Science Evangelism

Creation Science Evangelism (CSE) was a batshit insane creationist webshite run by Hovind. Its bizarre claims have included such gems as artificial intelligence being somehow related to the Mark of the Beast (Complete with bad grammar making the page hard to understand) and silliness about Obama and microchips. (The insanity is strong with this one.) The editorial line seemed to dislike sane websites and people, and was uncertain whether Snopes was run by one person or many. As CSE was run almost exclusively by Kent, it was a locus of hardcore creationism, and its legacy continues in Hovind Junior's Creation Today.

The $250,000 Challenge

Before his incarceration, Hovind made this challenge:

“”$250,000 to anyone who can give any empirical evidence (scientific proof) for evolution.

—Kent Hovind

The challenge was designed to be unwinnable. Using Hovind's rules, you could offer $250,000 for empirical evidence of the sun rising in the East, and your money would be safe. Eric Hovind has since discontinued the offer and no longer mentions it on any Hovind-related website.

There are three main flaws to Hovind's challenge:

1. The challenge was allegedly judged by an anonymous committee hand-picked by Hovind. Any challenges that involve being judged by the offeror are legally unenforceable. No matter what the evidence presented, all the offeror has to say is "not satisfied" and nobody can collect.
2. Hovind offered no proof — other than his word — that the money existed. By comparison, James Randi's diametrically opposed Million Dollar Challenge, for example, will give details of the JREF's prize account at Goldman Sachs upon request.
3. Hovind demanded applicants prove that evolution is the only possible way life, the Universe, and everything could have come into existence. Specifically, in order to win his "evolution" challenge, Hovind set these conditions:

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).

Note that only #4 and #5 pertain to evolution. #1 is a matter of cosmology, #2 is astrophysics, and #3 is abiogenesis, a separate question in biology. Hovind claims that the theory of evolution posits that these five events took place without God. In fact, evolution makes no mention of God at all, let alone declaring that God does not exist. Indeed, many theists see evolution as compatible with their beliefs.

A number of people offered responses, but Hovind refused to forward the information to his committee, let alone give out the prize.

Lunar recession

See the main article on this topic: Lunar recession

Hovind believes that the moon is too close to the Earth to allow deep time. His specific calculations are only 0.0313% correct.

Videos and copyright issues

Since the early 1990s, Hovind has sold self-produced videos that went on to earn him two million dollars a year at his peak, which he refused to pay taxes on.

Creation Seminar Series

1. The Age of The Earth
2. The Garden of Eden
3. Dinosaurs and the Bible
4. Lies in the Textbooks
5. The Dangers of Evolution
6. The Hovind Theory
7. Questions and Answers

Topical Series

1. Children's Video About Dinosaurs
2. How To Make Money And Spend It God's Way
3. Leviathan The Fire Breathing Dragon of Job 41
4. Magic Tricks And How To Do Them
5. Nails
6. Public School Presentation
7. Redeeming The Straw Man
8. The Bible And Health
9. Why Evolution Is Stupid
10. More Reasons Why Evolution Is Stupid

Before his son took over the business, Hovind stated in his presentations that his material was not copyrighted and could be freely reused; in his seminars, he told his audience they were free to edit the tapes to remove things they didn't like, such as his jokes that offended people. However, when several YouTubers, particularly user Thunderf00t, began using the videos for critiques, Creation Science Evangelism responded with DMCA takedown requests and claimed copyright ownership. In the end, Eric Hovind lost and the video rebuttals stayed online, but he modified the Creation Science Evangelism's policy to only allow reproduction of "unedited, unaltered" video in an effort to prevent editing for criticism.

Various other creationist ideas

• Neanderthals were nothing more than ordinary humans living to 300 years of age.
• While he states that God "invented music", he warns that Satan created "ungodly" music, though he doesn't specify the genre.
• Humans matured much more slowly before the flood, with children attaining adolescence at the age of forty.
• There was no salt in the oceans before the Flood, and it probably never rained before then.
• A drop of water can cover the entire planet if spread thinly enough.
• Kangaroos left the Ark after the flood and "hopped" to Australia to escape from the lions (only to end up in the jaws of giant ripper lizards, marsupial lions, thylacines and saltwater crocodiles).
• Hyraxes are actually surviving Hyracotherium (a prehistoric horse) populations, despite the fact that hyraxes are more closely related to elephants and manatees. He also (wrongly) asserts that they are carnivores.
• Jackals (specifically black-backed and side-striped jackals) are within the same kind as wolves and domestic dogs, despite being so divergent that they can't even hybridize.
• Hyenas fall within the "dog kind", even though they're actually more closely related to cats and mongooses. When called out on this, he maintained his position and, as proof of his assertion, stated that they are dogs because 3-year-olds identify them as such just by looking at them.

One sign to rule them all

“”I am a man of one sign.

—Probably not Thomas Aquinas

• 

  Kent carries this sign everywhere he goes.

• 

  No, this isn't a joke.

• 

  This is deadly serious.

• 

  Kent, this is an intervention.

• 

  We think this is a sign that you can't see past her — Sign No. 1.

• 

  It's been 17 years since your first sign.

• 

  There's millions — no, billions — of signs out there, just waiting for you.

• 

  It's time for you to move on, find new signs.

Other astounding beliefs

Freeman on the Dinosaur Adventure Land

See the main article on this topic: Pseudolaw

“”I do not have or use an SS# ... Actually, no real person has a social security number. Notice on your SS card that your name is spelled with all capital letters. This designates the STRAW MAN business, trust or corporation not a person ...

—Kent Hovind

According to Kent Hovind, Kent Hovind and KENT HOVIND are not the same person — in other words, defining him as an adherent to strawman theory.

According to this twisted logic, the "strawman" KENT HOVIND was indicted — not the actual flesh-and-blood Kent Hovind. Accordingly, at his arraignment, Hovind attempted to enter a plea of "subornation of false muster" — apparently an obsolete military term meaning "being ordered to say you showed up at roll call when you weren't actually there" — generating a fair amount of confusion and giggling among observers.

In a 1998 document filed with his local Clerk of Court, Hovind claimed to be a "sovereign American," declared he was not a "U.S. citizen," not part of the "'bankrupt' corporate government," and previously signed documents do not give an entity the ability to "falsely assume jurisdiction" over him or his wife. This, in Hovind's eyes, severed all ties between Kent Hovind and KENT HOVIND. In 2001, nevertheless, he signed Kent E Hovind above a KENT E HOVIND signature line.

Microchip madness

See the main article on this topic: RFID

Hovind has also claimed: "Not many folks realize it, but Obamacare Law HR3200, that NOBODY read before they voted for it, requires that everyone get an implanted micro-chip by March 23, 2013." Unsurprisingly, this claim is false. Apparently Kent never read the bill either, as the relevant section is rather boring, simply providing for the establishment of a registry "to facilitate analysis of postmarket safety and outcomes data" of various medical devices used in or on patients.

Independent Baptist

See the main article on this topic: Independent Baptist

Hovind has described being raised in a Mennonite church (he later wrote about being "raised" in Lutheran and Methodist churches), but then became and remained an Independent Baptist, also called Independent Fundamental Baptist, saying he is "an unwavering, uncompromising fundamentalist." He thinks that once everyone in the world becomes Christian, "we can continue our fight over other doctrinal distinctives."

Biblical contradictions

See the main article on this topic: Biblical contradictions

“”“If I was God, I would write the [Bible] in such a way that those who don’t want to believe in me anyway would think they found something. ‘Aha, here’s why I don’t believe.' And then they could go on with their own life because they don’t want to believe God anyways. I would put things in there that would appear, without digging, to be contradictions. I don’t think that’s deceptive, I think that’s wise for the Heavenly Father to weed out those who are really serious.

—Kent Hovind

Hovind is a staunch believer in biblical inerrancy, claiming that "The Scriptures do not contain error" and, to boot, that the only accurate version of the English Bible is the King James Version.

Miscellaneous

Hovind also believes that:

• Non-Christian faiths:

• Zoroastrianism was founded around 600 BCE. Most scholars actually state it was much earlier, around 1000 BCE.
• Satan and God are equally powerful in Zoroastrianism. In fact, Zoroastrians believe that Ahura Mazda (the "God" character) will banish Angra Mainyu (the "Satan" character) and bring about the end times, and then a savior figure will come along and raise up the dead. According to Hovind, in Zoroastrianism "a lack of importance [is] placed on God", which is exactly wrong.
• Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, which all are really evolution cults in disguise, made it easy for Communism to take over in China.
• Muslims believe heavily in evolution, conveniently ignoring Islamic creationists like Harun Yahya and the fact that Muslims are about 50/50 on evolution versus creationism. Perhaps he conflates Old Earth Creationism with evolution?

• History:

• Democrates is the founder of Atomism, rather than Democritus.
• Stalin's mass killings were done to "purify the Russian race," despite the fact that he was an ethnic Georgian.
• Somewhat paradoxically, he believes that the Great Pyramid of Giza is "the Bible in Stone" and was not built by the Ancient Egyptians, a belief once held by Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses and a man who Hovind would likely consider a base heretic.
• The Latin language somehow contributed to the decline of the Romans, and its continued use in scientific literature is "killing us now". Quick, team him up with the Anglo-Saxon Foundation!

• Politics:

• George W. Bush is a Satanist.
• SARS and AIDS are synthetic pathogens.
• 9/11 was an inside job, because some people didn't show up for work on that day, and deposits of gold held in the Twin Tower basement went missing shortly after the attack. The same applies to the Oklahoma City Bombing, which was apparently staged in order to demonize Hovind's beloved militia groups.
• Abortion was invented by Satan in order to depopulate the earth.
• Vaccines cause autism.
• Exodus 21:28-29 (the part about executing the owners of oxen responsible for goring people to death) should be used as a basis for punishing those who've committed vehicular homicide.
• He supports executing all violators of God's law, as in his mind this will result in the "mean gene" being erased from the human genetic code, despite the fact that he had previously condemned eugenics (which is what he's basically advocating here) as an invention of Satan.

• The End Times:

• Hitler's persecution of the Jews was Satan's "trial run" for the end time events against Christians.
• The book of Daniel predicts America's fall, the ascension of China, and the formation an anti-Christian Muslim alliance, as well as the birth of the Antichrist in Syria.
• Psalm 90:10 indicates that the Second Coming will occur in 2018 or 2028 (70-80 years after the formation of the State of Israel First deadline didn't work...).
• HAARP (High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) technology will be used by Satan's agents to project holograms of a "fake Jesus", Buddha, Allah, Muhammad, or the Virgin Mary into the sky to deceive people.
• The New World Order will withhold food from those lacking the mark of the beast (a microchip), and those refusing to submit to it will be beheaded.

• Other:

• He considers Stan Deyo a Christian "genius", and that his theory that UFOs are piloted by Satan is "interesting".
• Loch Ness can contain five million people without breaking the surface.
• He also believes a number of other conspiracy theories, such as chemtrails being sprayed and vaccines becoming mandatory for depopulation purposes.

Legal problems (1995 to 2006)

Whoa there — are we talking about taxes?

Criminal tax-related convictions in 2006

“”Call the IRS and tell them to arrest me if I am breaking a law!

—Kent Hovind

In July 2006, Hovind was arrested and charged with 58 tax-related counts, including twelve counts of willful failure to withhold federal income taxes and FICA taxes from his employees' wages, forty-five counts of structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements, and one count of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the administration of the internal revenue laws. At his first court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Miles Davis, Hovind said "I still don’t understand what I'm being charged for and who is charging me" despite having access to both his indictment — listing all the charges — and an attorney to explain them to him.

The government accused Hovind of breaking several laws, including intentionally and falsely misstating the conditions of employment for various employees to avoid paying the withholding tax of employees for his own financial benefit. In addition, the Pensacola News Journal reported the prosecution charged him with impeding an IRS investigation by "filing a frivolous lawsuit against the agency demanding damages for criminal trespass," "filing an injunction against an IRS special agent," "filing false complaints against the IRS for false arrest, excessive use of force and theft," and "making threats against investigators and those cooperating with the investigation." The Pensacola News Journal also noted, "On the day the IRS searched the Hovind home, Kent Hovind withdrew $70,000 from the Creation Science Evangelism account. Half in a check; the other in cash." WorldNetDaily, which is sympathetic to Hovind, reported that he "was accused of tax fraud because he called his employees missionaries and paid them in cash," and later was "convicted on those counts."

Hovind did not offer a defense at trial to these charges. Hovind's organization was not tax-exempt, and its revenue "appeared to constitute income to petitioner personally." Employees testified that they did not consider it a church, and the prosecution explained that even if it were a church, churches are required to pay payroll taxes. Hovind was also found to have intentionally made multiple withdrawals of around $9,500 to avoid the scrutiny that comes with withdrawing at least $10,000 from the bank, which accounted for 45 of the charges.

Hovind was jailed as a flight risk while awaiting sentencing. In early 2007, he was sentenced to a 10-year jail term and ordered to pay restitution, which by May 2013 was "$3.3 million in taxes and penalties". His wife was sentenced to one year and one day. Both have since filed several unsuccessful appeals. The Eleventh Court of Appeals' ruling is quite a nice summary of all the evidence against him. In discussing the evidence, it noted in December of 2008 that:

The government proved that Kent knew the tax laws required the collection and payment of withholding taxes, but he refused to comply. Employees of Evangelism Enterprises, peers, and legal counsel testified that Kent disputed the authority of the Internal Revenue Service based on the separation of the church and state, debated the interpretation and application of the withholding requirements, and intentionally characterized Evangelism Enterprises as a "church" and his employees as "missionaries" to avoid tax obligations. Kent had opined to attorney David Gibbs that he was "smarter" than other church officials who had forfeited real property after they refused to collect or pay withholding taxes… The evidence established that Kent and Jo Hovind structured cash transactions with knowledge of, and the intent to avoid, reporting of those transactions by AmSouth Bank… Substantial evidence established that Kent obstructed investigation of his tax offenses.

In January 2010, his final appeal was denied by the Supreme Court, rejecting his petition. Despite the overwhelming evidence of Hovind's crimes, some evangelical supporters claim that he is being persecuted as part of a government attack and want him set free, even creating various petitions. The Pensacola News Journal, on the other hand, wrote: "Earth to 'Dr. Dino': Please pay your taxes and start facing reality," telling Hovind that "You got caught, so quit whining and take your punishment like a man."

As of 2013, on Hovind's blog, he maintained his innocence "like scores of Bible characters".

Little Red Riding Hovind and the Big Bad IRS

“”I do not have a 501(c)3 corporation. I do not fill out income tax forms.

—Kent Hovind

Kent Hovind earned millions — profiting additionally from tax dodging on every cent — with a judge noting that in 2003 alone, Hovind's operation earned a whopping $1,657,329 just in merchandise sales, later growing to about $2 million. Hovind and his wife have faced problems in United States Tax Court for not paying income tax. In July 2006, the Tax Court found that Hovind was deficient in paying his federal income taxes in tax years 1995–97 in the amount of $504,957.24. The judge ruled: "The organizational structure petitioner established for the above activities, including petitioner’s purported religious ministry and theme park, apparently was based on various questionable trust documents purchased from Glenn Stoll, a known promoter of tax avoidance schemes." Hovind appealed this ruling, but the court denied the appeal. In 2012 a Tax Court judge noted that Hovind's operation "sold books and videotapes promoting anti-government and tax-protester arguments," including Joe Sweet's “Good News for 1040 Filers” video, and the catalog description says that it “[e]xplains how income tax is voluntary for most people”. The judge wrote that "Mr. Sweet has been permanently enjoined from '[o]rganizing, promoting, marketing, or selling the tax shelter, plan, or arrangement entitled ‘GOOD NEWS for FORM 1040 Filers'" and the Justice Department called the injunction a "victory for IRS in battle against tax fraud promoters". In a detailed 58-page ruling, a judge of the United States Tax Court wrote the following about Hovind's wife:

Petitioner also contends that any fraudulent intent during the years at issue was attributable to Mr. Hovind. However, we find that it is more reasonable to infer from petitioner's course of conduct that her true intention was to conceal substantially all of her income and to take her chances that the fraud would not be discovered. Our finding is supported by the fact that she did not amend her returns until after respondent began a civil investigation in respect of her. Furthermore, the record shows that petitioner was an active participant in the operation of CSE and, along with Mr. Hovind, engaged in a course of conduct designed to conceal and mislead.

Hovind repeatedly said that he opposes teaching evolution on the grounds that public education is funded with his tax dollars. Which was obviously false at the time.

Also, in 2006, his Dinosaur Adventure Land, a theme park in his backyard, was largely shut down due to his refusal to secure a building permit. Hovind claimed that his "decision to build without permits from the county" is based on the Bible, questioning "Does the Escambia County, Florida civil government have jurisdiction over a Church of the Sovereign God of the universe?" During a hearing, Hovind was mocked by the local county commissioner with the response that "Scripture also says 'Render unto Caesar what Caesar demands.' And right now, Caesar demands a building permit." Following the criminal trial, Eric Hovind continued to operate the Dinosaur Adventure Land and Creation Science Evangelism, but renamed them the Creation Store and Creation Today, respectively.

The prison years (2007 to 2015)

Phone calls, blogging, books, interviews, and YouTube

Hovind was held in the local jail while awaiting sentencing. The Pensacola News Journal reported that "Although phones include warnings that conversations are recorded, he didn't mince words as he ran up eight hours of calls per week." The prosecution submitted some calls between Hovind, his wife Jo and son Eric, posted online by the Pensacola News Journal, to the court during sentencing where "Hovind accused the Internal Revenue Service, the judge, and the prosecutor of violating the law in prosecuting him, and referred to unspecified things he could do 'to make their lives miserable'."

In early 2007, Hovind was sentenced to ten years and was transferred to Federal Prison Camp, Pensacola, a minimum-security prison in his hometown. Hovind began blogging while in prison via communication with family and supporters, which were posted on a website edited by Paul Abramson, a fellow creationist. Within a few months, Hovind got in "trouble" and was moved into solitary confinement at another prison, as Paul Abramson (then-editor of Kent Hovind's blog) explained:

Brother Hovind got in trouble with the chaplain in the federal prison where he was previously held. The chaplain actually tried to get Dr. Hovind in trouble on more than one occasion. And the chaplain told him to stop holding Bible studies. The chaplain called them 'unauthorized meetings.' Dr. Hovind was following the rules that no more than 5 men could meet together. He kept holding the Bible studies (only with 3-4 others at a time) and witnessing to his fellow inmates whenever he could.

Hovind was moved to prisons around the country, being held in Colorado and New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Hovind continued to blog from prison, writing self-aggrandizing "knee-mail" dialogues between himself and God. Independent observers noted that his writing had started to look rather unhinged as of December 2007. This tends to ignore the fact that he was already unhinged before he went to jail, believing as he does that the US government and the New World Order were behind such terrorist attacks as the Oklahoma City bombing and the demolition of the World Trade Center.

Around 2012, the blog was retooled, and Hovind's writings, including wacky conspiracy legal filings, appeared on a website named after 2 Peter 3 in the New Testament, which describes how all those darned "scoffers" are going to get their comeuppance. Hovind became involved with Paul Hansen, whom the WorldNetDaily described as "an attorney advising Hovind." In a letter to the US Attorney and Attorney General of Florida, Hansen described himself "as Kent Hovind counsel". According to the Nebraska Supreme Court, Hansen is not a lawyer and is, in fact, a self-proclaimed sovereign citizen. In 2013, the court issued an injunction preventing Hansen from "engaging in the unauthorized practice of law in any manner, including but not limited to holding himself out to another as being entitled to practice law as defined by § 3-1001" after an investigation of Hansen's blogs and legal "kits". Hovind's blog tells his supporters to send donations to Hansen and calls him "a law-educated layman". Hansen previously made news for taking money from a disabled person and was sentenced to jail for refusing to address 14 housing code violations as well as "one count of giving false information, one count of resisting arrest and two counts of obstructing the administration of the law." Hansen doesn't pay taxes, and despite acknowledging being a "native-born of the Land of Nebraska" and living in Omaha, "believes that neither the city nor Douglas County holds sway over him" and "does not believe the laws of the United States of America apply to him."

Hansen sells "briefs" on his website to people not interested in getting a driver's license, license plate, obeying public health codes or being honorable citizens by paying taxes for public roads, prisons or fire departments. But anyone interested in such advice should be aware that Hansen has a warrant for his arrest by the Omaha Police Department for failing to appear in court, tax liens for more than $30,000 and by his own count has been arrested about 15 times. A typical example of Hansen's work for Hovind is a 2011 letter to the Florida Attorney General that tells the government Hovind is a "free inhabitant" per the Articles of Confederation and the government "must accept the Articles of Confederation". Yes, you read that correctly: Hansen bases his argument for overturning Hovind's felony convictions on a system of governance that dissolved itself in 1789. Thus, Hovind's source for legal advice is on a par with his sources about science.

Just how bad were Kent Hovind's legal ramblings? Eric Hovind got them removed from creationist websites.

He wrote several books while in federal prison under his own name and under the pseudonym Elijah Greene. Hovind blogs to his readers: "I wrote a book and published it in April 2013 called What on Earth is About to Happen... for Heaven's Sake? It is available as an eBook on 2peter3.com and can be purchased in full color (240+ pages) from [email redacted by rationalwiki]." His self-published books are sold through the same website. His 2013 dissertation is also sold through Amazon.com's self-publishing subsidiary (CreateSpace).

In addition to his blogging, nearly weekly "interviews" with Hovind from federal prison were conducted by Gea Ambrosia and posted on youtube in 2014. According to Club Creation, "Evangelist Gea" hosts Truth Serum Talk Radio which states: "Hovind is not able to take calls while on the show," but can "engage listeners through chat" as "Chatters can make comments, ask questions and Dr. Hovind will Answer them in REAL TIME.. LIVE!"[sic]. In late March, she announced she was "taking a leave of absence until further notice due to personal reasons", but later resumed interviewing Hovind in prison.

In May 2014, Hovind was moved from Federal Correctional Institution, Berlin in New Hampshire to Federal Correctional Institution at Montgomery, Alabama. The prison rules state that prisoners "may not give to or receive anything from another inmate." Yet, Hovind made "bookmarkers and paper airplanes for a few guys and it spread like wildfire" inside the prison. According to Eric Hovind, Kent Hovind was moved from the prison to Elmore County Jail for violating prison rules. The case was reviewed by law enforcement, which can take up to 180 days.

Lawsuits, legal filings and criminal contempt

“”Many great generals in history had a simple philosophy that often brought victory — "Attack! Always attack!" (Read about General Nathan Bedford Forrest CSA)… I'm already in prison and "Ebed" knows how to attack so I might as well pull off the gloves.

—Kent Hovind in November 2013

Hovind's life demonstrates the inherent pitfalls, not just of forming baseless beliefs, but of seeking any opinion which would incorrectly justify said beliefs. Indeed, doing so has led Hovind to fear the non-existent New World Order, to deny evolution, and become a tax fraudster. Given the above history, it is not surprising that Hovind continues to defend his delusions and still got in trouble while locked in a prison cell.

In 2013, Hovind wrote that "God sent" Alex Matthews "from Washington, DC to live right in my room on the top bunk", and, in Hovind's words, then "helped" with his legal filings. According to a US Department of Justice press release, in 2011 Alexander Otis Matthews pleaded guilty "to fraud charges in connection with mortgage and investment schemes to obtain more than $12 million in fraudulent loans." At his sentencing, Matthews received 10 years in prison, was ordered to forfeit $7.9 million and must pay $5,055,250 in restitution to his victims.

Hovind has since filed numerous legal claims, including fraudulent liens on property the US government seized for his debt. In 2012, a federal judge placed an injunction on Creation Science Evangelism and its "representatives or agents" to prevent them from putting liens on forfeited properties without first obtaining a court order, and in 2013 found Hovind had no merit to file claims on the property and allowed the government to submit a proper motion to show cause. The US Attorney alleges "Hovind willfully violated the permanent injunction order" and is seeking to hold Hovind in criminal contempt, announcing: "The United States Attorney's Office is ready to immediately appoint a criminal prosecutor to the case for any further action that this Court deems necessary." On July 8, 2014, the judge granted the government's motion and is ordering "Hovind to show cause why he should not be punished for criminal contempt."

In August 2013, Hovind was referring to himself as a "POW", and (despite all of his appeals resulting in dismissal) wrote that he was moving forward with more legal "battles".

Around this time, Hovind filed:

• A lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons pro se in 2012("dismissed with prejudice for lack of prosecution" in 2013)
• Another pro se 2013 suit against five prison employees "in their personal capacity" (dismissed in 2014)
• A pro se petition for "brady material" in 2011, a pro se "2255 motion"(dismissed)
• Another 2011 pro se "Motion for Reconsideration" (dismissed)
• Yet another 2011 pro se Writ of Mandamus
• A complaint against the judge in his criminal trial (and after it was dismissed, he complained in a letter about the dismissal)
• A complaint against the Assistant US Attorney
• A complaint with the Bar Association
• A complaint with the Department of Justice's Professional Misconduct Review Unit
• A $25 million tort against the United States of America in 2013
• A pro se 2013 appeal against the Commissioner of IRS ("dismissed for failure to prosecute")
• A 2014 pro se Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus regarding the warden of FCI Berlin (dismissed)

Prior to these lawsuits, Hovind had a history of making legal claims that were rejected by the court, including filing for bankruptcy which was dismissed as a "bad faith" filing. Then he sued IRS Agent Scott Schneider, which was also dismissed with the judge citing the Tax Anti-Injunction Act and in Hovind's criminal case he was found guilty of impeding an IRS investigation by filing a "frivolous lawsuit" and "threatening investigators," according to both the Pensacola News Journal and the WorldNetDaily. One IRS agent, M.C. Powe, testified at his criminal trial, after she tried to collect taxes from the Hovinds in 1996, "Dr. Hovind sued me three times, maybe more," and said, "It just seemed to be something he did often." During his early 2007 sentencing, the prosecution played audio of Hovind making "veiled threats and threats of legal action," for instance, with him saying: "I don't know if because we filed so many lawsuits in the past against them that possibly Schneider and Heldmyer are afraid that if they don't keep pushing they'll be sued ... if I could talk to them I'd say 'look, let me out of here drop all this stuff and I'll hold you harmless. If you put me in jail for five years then yes I'll keep going after you'."

Kent E. Hovind v. RationalMedia Foundation, et al.

See the main article on this topic: Kent E. Hovind v. RationalMedia Foundation

On February 24, 2014, Hovind filed a pro se lawsuit against the RationalMedia Foundation (although he originally called it by its previous name, the RationalWiki Foundation) based on claims he made about this article, referencing this revision. He did not have summons issued, and hence did not serve the complaint. The complaint referenced the foundation by name along with a number of John Doe editors seeking a retraction of certain phrases in the article, specifically: "Hovind is a young Earth creationist and convicted tax fraudster" and "[H]ovind has filed numerous legal claims with Matthews' help, including fraudulent liens on property the US government seized for his debt".

Hovind disputed that the fraudulent liens were filed by him, claiming that they were "filed by supporters of the plaintiff, who is a Christian evangelist preacher with a worldwide following. The plaintiff did not file the liens referenced, and in fact, could not file the liens based upon his present incarcerated status. The plaintiff did not send the liens to the court to be filed, and in fact could not have filed the liens given that such liens must be filed in person at the county Land Records office." This was contradicted in the actual liens: "Kent E Hovind asks that this Memorandum Of Lis Pendens be recorded as a lien against the above shown parcel(s) of real property, and that a stamped copy of each lien be mailed back to him at the address below." He also wrote several blogs, such as August 2013 that "I filed a 'Lis Pendens'," and again in October 2013 that "I filed a lis pendens in the county office to stop the sale of any other properties."

Hovind sought a sum of $2.5 million jointly from the RationalMedia Foundation and the "John Doe author" of this article for damages to his reputation.

In December 2015, a federal judge dismissed the case.

On February 25, 2014, Matthews himself also filed a lawsuit against the RationalMedia Foundation for $1.5 million. This too was never served.

Mail fraud, criminal contempt charges and trial

In October 2014, Hovind and Paul Hansen were indicted on six charges by a federal grand jury in Pensacola, Florida for issues concerning the property seized by the government. They were charged with mail fraud, attempt and conspiracy to commit mail fraud and criminal contempt for interfering with the sale of the properties Hovind had been forced to forfeit as a result of the 2006 tax case.

The indictment accuses Hovind and Hansen of several charges, including that they "willfully, knowingly, and with intent to defraud, devise and intend to devise a scheme to defraud the United States" through "a Claim of Lien Affidavit of Obligation with attachments" and "four Memoranda of Lis Pendens." Previously in 2013, Hovind wrote that "the new Assistant US Atty used the judge's order at the county courthouse to change the deeds on all the properties from: 'Property of Creation Science Evangelism Church Ministry Trust' to 'Property of U.S. Gov'," and in response, "I filed a 'Lis Pendens' which means no action can be taken until all legal issues … are resolved."

On March 2, 2015, Hovind and Hansen's trial began, attracting about a dozen protesters calling for Hovind's release. When Hovind was put on the witness stand to testify about his 2006 convictions, he argued against his attorney's request to keep his answers brief, citing the fact that he's "threatened with 100 years (in prison)", and instead used his time to, among other things, accuse the government of persecuting him and cite scripture.

On March 12, 2015, the jury found Hovind and Hansen guilty of contempt of court, Hansen guilty of failing to appear before a Grand Jury, and Hansen not guilty on one count. The jury was hung, reportedly 11 to 1 in favor of finding Hovind guilty of the remaining charges. According to Jonathan Schwartz, "The dissenter who hung the jury, was a militia member who appears to have been in prior contact with Free Kent Hovind supporters." The judge later dismissed Hovind's guilty contempt charge and as the federal prosecutor prepared for retrial, she dismissed the remaining charges without prejudice due to "the defendant’s concerns about the technical sufficiency of the superseding indictment and to be sure that defendants are adequately apprised of the nature of the acquisition against them."

After prison (2015 to present)

Federal prisoners who maintain good behavior can serve 85% of their sentence and be released. Hovind's scheduled end of federal custody was on August 11, 2015, and on July 8, 2015, Hovind was released to home confinement for roughly one month to finish his prison sentence.

In 2016, Kent Hovind divorced his wife of 40 years, Jo Hovind, and remarried a divorcee and anti-vax crusader Mary Tocco (disregarding for just a moment what Matthew 5:32 among others prescribes on that topic). This was after Kent condemned his wife Jo to a year in prison for the tax-fraud related matters because he refused to admit that he was solely responsible for the scam. This perhaps explains why the divorce was uncontested. By 2017, the marriage with Mary Tocco was over, with her leaving Kent claiming to feel "unsafe".

As of 2017, Kent Hovind has resurrected himself as a self-styled YouTube "personality", but usually spends his time shooting himself in the foot and permanent damage-control mode, in the best tradition of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Hovind has expressed an intention to re-open his "Dinosaur Adventure Land" facility at a new location in Alabama. Hovind boasts the theme park will be uninsured, and that children going on rides will "do so at their own risk". The compound regularly attracts unpaid volunteers, who share Sov-Cit conspiracy theories, and that never ends badly. Hovind is also reported to be locking horns with Eric.

In late 2018, Hovind engaged in yet another debate with AronRa and committed still more logical fallacies, including denying the validity of Chromosomes as evidence and using selective horse breeding as "justification" for kinds. Also in 2018, Dinosaur Adventure Land came back to life in a donated gravel pit.

In early 2020 he had a debate with Professor Dave Farina in which he showed further ineptitude/dishonesty such as his question "do you believe we came from sponges, Dave?" After the debate, Dave gave Hovind five challenges, and of course he never took his offer for the second debate. I wonder why?

In 2020 he also sued the government again, for half a billion dollars, over "unjust imprisonment". The case was dismissed with prejudice in 2021, with the judge ruling:

“”Indeed, the objections demonstrate the frivolous and delusional nature of this suit when, among other things, they assert that plaintiff Hovind and his ministry were beyond the jurisdiction of the United States and that the obligation to pay income taxes is tantamount to being conscripted into involuntary servitude as a "tax collector for the United States".

—Judge T. Kent Wetherell, II

In 2018, Hovind began asking his followers to write to Donald Trump on his behalf for a presidential pardon. In January 2021, Hovind made a feeble, last-minute attempt to get a pardon from soon-to-be twice-impeached, almost-ex-President Trump by perpetrating lies about Dominion Voting Systems regarding the 2020 election outcome.

Domestic violence

Hovind was arrested on 19th July 2021, due to allegations that he deliberately threw Cindi Lincoln, his estranged wife, onto the ground, injuring her. Lincoln petitioned for protection from Kent Hovind in Conecuh County, Alabama. Lincoln wrote, “He wants to silence me. It depends on public opinion for its vitality [sic.] …. [I] fear he will kill me to silence me.” Lincoln further maintains that Hovind sent his “right-hand man” to threaten her with a gun, and the next day, the right-hand man ransacked her property. Hovind must spend 30 days in jail, he must pay for Cindi Lincoln's medical expenses, he must pay a $500 fine, $100 bail bond fee and court costs. Hovind must avoid contact with Lincoln and may not come within 500 yards of her, he will be on probation for a year and must give up all his firearms.

Debates

Kent Hovind debated the physicist Youtuber King Crocoduck in 2017 and showed his utter lack of scientific understanding.

Stopped clock moments

Despite Hovind being a posterboy for creationists and a general batshit conspiracy theorist, he has shown rare glimpses of sanity, albeit clearing an absurdly low bar. He accepts the scientific fact of heliocentrism and accepts that the Earth is round and not flat, and has denounced both geocentrists and flat earthers.

See also

For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about Kent Hovind.

• Cryptozoology
• Evil Liberal Science Conspiracy
• Genesis 3D
• Texe Marrs
• Pious fraud

External links

• See the Wikipedia article on Kent Hovind.

• Kent Hovind on Wikiquote, in case you can't stomach going through his whole seminars

• YouTube channel
• Student descriptions:

• An insider's story
• IAMA former pupil of shyster Kent Hovind, "Dr. Dino" who taught me and a class of homeschool kids all about "science", Reddit

• Video rebuttals:

• Point-by-point takedowns: Critical Analysis of Kent Hovind Series, Extant Dodo Productions, YouTube
• Digestible chunks: Kent Hovind's Bad Arguments, Hovind's Folly, YouTube
• Music video: Tribute to Kent Hovind, eddygoombah, YouTube

• Kent-hovind.com archive, a detailed analysis of Hovind's mishegaas
• Kent Hovind gets interviewed by Ali G. Within, he is accused of not flushing the toilet, and it's hilarious.