Famous Fundies: Kent Hovind

Since the last post wandered down to Penascola, FL, I figured we’d go up just a few blocks from PCC to the former stomping grounds of creationist speaker and writer Kent Hovind (until the feds threw him in jail for tax evasion that is). There must be something in the water down there…

17 thoughts on “Famous Fundies: Kent Hovind”

  1. Video tape. Hoorah.
    And his 3 goals for the night. Joy. And his extensive use of “every sin.” Uh huh…
    Family planning…HOH BOY!

    And just another thing. The “Four Great Questions” drive me insane! I’ve heard them way too many times. It’s making me cringe just hearing them. And just whacko that he used these “4 Great Questions” in order to prove evolution wrong. And he says he was a science teacher…

  2. This is quite a gem, but you should check out his doctoral “dissertation”. It blows everything else he’s ever done out of the water in terms of insanity.

  3. I thought this guy was awesome when I was a kid. Several years and a lot of thought and growing-up later, I saw his latest tapes. He referenced a Jack Chick comic book as a source for the history of Islam. (Chick claims that the Catholic Church funded Muhammad to start a religion to mobilize the Arabs against “true Christians.” Yeah, okay.) I’d heard rumblings about his IRS issues but his newest stuff proved he was off the deep end in KJV-only lunacy and worse.

  4. Hovind was invited to my fundy church back in 1995. After the second session, I could not take it any more. I told my pastor that this guy had serious issues in his materials and that I would not attend any more of the sessions. The sessions continued.

    About 2 years ago I found out that someone in the church, as well as the pastor, had sent Hovind a letter enumerating issues. Even among some fundies, Hovind was considered to be out of control and “Nutty”.

    What shocked me the most about the Hovind experience was the lack of intervention by my pastor. Fundies and Fundy pastors believe that they are responsible for the spiritual welfare of their church, yet the meetings continued and nothing was stated from the pulpit to refute the Hovind presentation.

  5. A 100-page dissertation? Really?!? A Master’s thesis *maybe*, but issues of content and quality of research aside, that is nowhere near long enough to be a doctoral dissertation.

  6. Ok I just skimmed the first 15 pages or so and I think I want to hurl. I know high schoolers who can write better than that! Doctoral dissertation my foot! (Yeah I know, I should probably save my rant for the diploma mill post.)

  7. Thanks for linking to that infamous dissertation. I had been wanting to have a look at that, but could never seem to find a copy of it. As a teenager, I really looked up to “Dr.” Hovind – he may even have been one of the reasons I decided to pursue science in college (currently a graduate student in geology). As I progressed through my education, however, I began to realize that he has almost no knowledge of science at all. In fact, there’s no way he could have taken even freshman-level science courses and think the way he does. I now see him as a total quack. Too bad I got most of my friends to like this guy….

    The dissertation is even worse than I imagined. It’s disjointed, shallow, completely lacking in any references outside of his own interpretation of the Bible, utterly non-academic….there simply are not words to describe this mess. It might approach the quality of a C grade freshman term paper. Very poorly written for a “professional” paper, with everything said in such a casual manner. It’s decidedly cringe-worthy. The presence of a double exclamation point (found early on) is reason enough to disqualify it from being even remotely on a professional level.

    And to think I used to love this guy….

  8. I posted this on facebook with the byline: laughing at kent hovind. I then, got an hour later from a supposed best friend accusing me of living a life of lies and that is why I hate him(kent hovind)
    I think he drank the kool aid ya’ll. But I do have to say this guy (hovind) and his friend (ham) influenced me at the beginning…a little.

  9. We had Kent’s son do a series at my Wyoming church several years ago. During the week the pastor and deacons did their research regarding Hovind’s tax/KJVO issues and politely asked him to not present that material. He politely complied.

    And thanks, Stan, for standing up for Ham. It’s a shame that Hovind’s extremism has only served to give creation science a black eye and that Ken Ham’s ministry gets painted with the same brush.

  10. While my family was visiting a friend in federal prison two years ago, we had one of the inmates just walk over to us and he sat down and started doing tricks and telling bible stories to my kids…unasked for, just thought we would enjoy it.

    We didn’t make a big deal about it and when he left i asked my buddy who the heck that was….he says, “the creation guy”…i’m like “who?”…anyway…the famous Kent Hovind paid my family a visit in federal prison 🙂

    That’s what i’m talkin bout!

  11. Wow. Just wow. I started reading Hovind’s “doctoral dissertation”. I only made it about 20 pages and couldn’t go on. I felt like I was reading a sermon.
    If that is what passes as college level doctoral material at a IFB college, then they are worse off than what I ever imagined. I am so glad I got a real degree (chemistry) from a real college. It allows me to have a real job 😀

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