The Outright Insanity Of Kent Hovind

A large portion of the content I watch online is of either a historical, philosophical, scientific, or otherwise of some kind of informational nature. I’m the kind of guy who watches documentaries for fun, and grew up watching Discovery Channel / TLC / History Channel and the like as much as I did cartoons (recall, this was the early and mid 90’s so those channels were still pretty high in quality in those days) so it only makes sense in this on-demand entertainment world we live in that I’d choose such for my quick and easy free-to-access content.

It then only seems inevitable that, with my wide range of interests in all the physics, astronomy, biology, philosophy, culture, and yes, even theology, that I’d learn of the existence of a man named Kent Hovind.

He looks like a nice guy — always wears Hawaiian shirts of varying styles, often times with dinosaurs on them, he has those SpongeBob toys, more dinosaur art on the walls and he’s smiling in the picture. Reminds me of the archetypal “stern but caring” grandfather character you may find in many stories.

Of course, appearances can be deceiving, and Kent Hovind is no exception.

Let’s start with the most critical point about him: He is a Young Earth Creationist. For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, it is the view that the Christian Bible is “literally true and accurate” in its account of history — most critically the Genesis account of how the universe came into being.

That, in and of itself, while certainly a radical view of reality to have, wouldn’t be too bad were it not that he has built his career on championing the “truth” of Creation and waging what can only be described as a literal holy war against “Evolutionism,” a term he uses to describe any acceptance of modern Cosmology, Biological Evolution, Abiogensis, and most any other aspect of science which contradicts his holy book. His key “point” (if one can say he has one to any degree) is that, to him, acceptance of the above noted scientific principles requires the same belief (read, faith) that any religion requires, as to him there is no evidence of anything other than the Genesis account of the origin of the universe, the Earth, life, etc; as such, this “Evolutionism” he claims that all Atheists believe in (even though Evolution is well accepted by a majority of self identified Christians) and thus, it being a religion, it shouldn’t be taught in schools.

He says this while stressing he isn’t saying that Creationism should be taught in schools, but that’s not the case — in most any presentation he does at some point he will strongly suggest that no only students disrupt the class when the subject of Evolution (in any of the various forms he describes it as) is brought up, with them instead, in whatever form works, pushing the Creation story in some form. He has also, on many occasions, suggested that his DVD set ($50 dollars, or you can get 10 for $300, what a deal!) be given to children at the school bus stop and that the children should be offered money to watch it.

To be more precise, Mr. Hovind says he objects to tax-payer money being spent to teach a “religion” in schools. This is, of course, incredibly ironic given the very well documented fact that Mr. Hovind spent 9 years in federal prison for tax evasion. While he will profess not only that it was, in effect, a conspiracy which lead to him being locked up, he also stresses he pays every tax he owes, which I honestly feel he is saying the truth on; he does pay every tax he feels he legitimately owes, which is likely none, because he is also a textbook Sovereign Citizen.

For those unfamiliar with this particular brand of crazy, these people believe that the Government is really just a corporation that has no actual power; that they are “citizens of the land” or some other construct and that due to such the “government” has no authority over them. This is generally done as, for all effect, a way to avoid registering vehicles, having drivers licenses, paying taxes.. you know, anything that requires spending money that goes into the state and / or federal coffers. You know, the same coffers that pay for roads, schools, the fire department, the police; you know, money that helps keep a society going.

This tax evasion came about as a side effect of his dual businesses: Creation Science Evangelism and Dinosaur Adventure Land. The former was (to make a somewhat complicated story very simple), after Kent’s incarceration, taken over by his son, Eric Hovind; the latter being his still-current project of a cult compound dinosaur-themed amusement park near Lenox, Alabama.

That, however, is just his most recent core project. Mr Hovind is incredibly open with his history of “teaching High School Science for 15 years” and indeed, is generally referred to by his cult members supporters as “Dr. Kent Hovind” or, as his online presence is themed, “Dr. Dino.” Kent absolutely loves dinosaurs and who can blame him? They were awesome! He loves them enough that his amusement park is based around dinosaurs (if you couldn’t tell from the name “Dinosaur Adventure Land”) which he feels are mentioned in the Bible and their very existence proves Creation, or something to that effect. This Doctorate came from Patriot Bible University, a non-accredited clearly religiously-biased correspondence “college” in Colorado; basically, a pointless “degree” of no value. That doesn’t stop his cult congregation from calling him “Doctor Kent Hovind” all the time. The “Teaching” he did was purely in private / home school contexts, teaching “biblical” science — not anything in a normal public school capacity as is implied.

He and a group of followers volunteers live at Dinosaur Adventure Land, working day in, day out (save for Sunday… sometimes) building the park. I mean with all honesty that it is admirable that the group can come together as it has to construct what they have. That being said, this isn’t Six Flags over Jesus, it’s a very humble place from what I’ve seen online but, were it not for the feeling of that place eventually becoming the next Jonestown it would be fun to tour, as I do appreciate driving around southern backwoods on a all-wheel-drive vehicle.

So, as we established, he lives at this compound theme park after having served 9 years in Federal Prison, with his lovely wife Jo Hovind… wait, no, that’s not right, she and he divorced in 2016, directly as a result of the fraud charge, and the fact that, according to reports, Kent “lies about everything all the time.” Since then, Kent has had multiple reported marriages which were only marriages in the religious sense; I.E. they were performed as a part of his religious group, lacking registration with the local municipalities. There are additional allegations of spousal abuse and both wives two and three have shared quite shocking (and by shocking I mean exactly what you would expect from someone like Kent) stories about him and the goings on at D.A.L.

This wouldn’t be much of a thing, though, if Kent simply taught what he felt to a group who followed him and let that be that. No, instead Kent has, as mentioned above, both before and since his incarceration fought nonstop against accepted science. Currently he has taken advantage of YouTube and other platforms to share bible study and, most well known today, his “Whack and Atheist” series where he tries to “knock some sense” into anyone who accepts real science “believes” evolution.

This is marketed as just for fun, and done in Christian love, but all it serves as is a chance for him to go on an hour long diatribe, usually barely scratching the surface of the video he is inevitably reacting to. Instead, he simply responds with the same worn out “points” he’s made over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, while performing an incredible demonstration of mental masturbation as he shuffles through his precious PowerPoint slides (a presentation he is incredibly proud of, to say the least) in an effort to try to somehow refute basic science.

This is where the root cause of me even writing this entry, and subsequent ones, comes from. It would be one thing if Kent were to simply make his claims countering the “evidences” (a nonsensical word he’s obsessed with) for “evolutionism” (regardless of how poor his counterpoints may be) but he has to be what amounts to a petulant child as he does such, behaving like what amounts to a grade-school bully as he insults whomever he is “whacking” that day.

This behavior isn’t just relegated to his Whack and Atheist show, oh no — it’s been a staple of his in most every presentation and “debate” he’s ever had: ignoring anything and everything brought up by his opposition, refusing to correct blatant errors when he is made aware of them, all while attacking the intelligence of the opposition yet simultaneously claiming others are doing such to him.

That is why I write this piece. You’ll notice it’s actually crafted as a direct spite against the man and his actions, not intrinsically his ideas per se. That is because there is no need for me to attack his points explicitly; that has been done a thousand times over by Aron Ra, Atheist JR, Sci Man Dan, Creaky Blinder, Logicked, Professor Dave, and so many others. It’s beating a dead horse at this stage, especially since his precious $50 DVD set has been completely debunked by Aron Ra — Kent has nothing new beyond that and his precious PowerPoint slides.

Instead, I wanted to give this primer on the type of person we’re dealing with here; a narcissistic misogynistic sov-cit creationist leader of a pseudo-cult with a worthless “degree” he uses to back up his absurd views on reality, all while in “good Christian love” insulting anyone who dares disagree with him — and that’s just me scratching the surface.

Kent Hovind is a very peculiar kind of person, with a great many behaviors and pet phrases that I just can’t help but discuss. Blame my nature of always observing and studying people — I can’t help but study the subject and his interactions with others and share my piece.

That, of course, is what I intend to do. This isn’t just a single piece, but an entire series that will be written. Given that he has nothing new to bring ever, I feel once I write what I have to add I’ll be done with him forever, having shared my thoughts for those who may take interest in them.

Let’s be clear, I don’t hate Kent. I just find him to be such a strange case that I certainly must comment. I’ve no interest in “debating” him since, as stated above, there is no debate to be had. Everything that needs to be said to him has been said, and he will hear none of it. It just becomes a semantics game of him demanding people defend his completely fictional view of what “evolution” is. I’m not wasting my time, and no one else should. Aron has torn everything he has apart to such an amazing degree I know I’ve nothing to add on that front.

His other behaviors, however, and much of the logic and analogies he uses in his preaching — the “ticks” that make Kent Hovind who he is on camera, those are something we all notice and can’t ignore, but no one has focused on. To me, it would be a fun exercise to study those aspects, and by fun, I mean most certainly a trip to the fringes of sanity.

I’m also, of course, aware that in writing this I make myself a target of Kent and his followers wrath. While I’ve not in any way expressed my personal theological beliefs he will most certainly presume I’m an Atheist (and also an “Evolutionist” which means, put together, that I don’t have a religion but my religion is Evolution…. right) and possibly put me on his show, either doing his usual shtick of defending himself against all the above statements or, in an even more childish display, looking around my online presence for something to attack, in the ultimate case of him being petty.

I’m just a random guy with a blog. He has no reason to care about what I have to say, but I know he likely will and, much like Brett Keane, feel a need to “attack” me simply because I brought them up. Can’t say I’d blame them, I’m obviously awesome, but you know, this entry kind of begs to be replied to, and if it is, that just proves the level of narcissism he has.

Really, I could go on and on, but I’ll reserve that for later posts. Thank you for reading this rather off-the-cuff piece.

Oh, and Mr. Hovind, if you do happen to read this, I hope you have an amazing day. Truly, I mean that. I hope you have the best day ever.

I’ll close with one very good thing about Kent — at least he isn’t a Flat Earther. I will certainly give him that!