Kent Hovind Arrested

Apparently, law enforcement has just been collecting various offenses for the past several years, for today they rounded up Kent Hovind and his wife and arrested them, and dumped 58 charges onto the docket.

Of all the antievolutionists around, Kent Hovind has to be a frontrunner in the “unsympathetic” sweepstakes, with his in-your-face tactics and smarminess. And yet I find this latest twist to the Hovind story sad and pathetic. Certainly, he is getting what appears to be his just desserts in this affair, but it still looks to me like someone who just cannot come to grips with reality finding it confusing when reality finally comes to grips with him.

Wesley R. Elsberry

Falconer. Interdisciplinary researcher: biology and computer science. Data scientist in real estate and econometrics. Blogger. Speaker. Photographer. Husband. Christian. Activist.

62 thoughts on “Kent Hovind Arrested

  • 2006/07/16 at 11:42 am
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    I’m so glad he’s getting his butt kicked. He has lots of followers who are even more out of touch with reality than he is. He’ll convince them that he’s being persecuted!

  • 2006/07/16 at 9:45 pm
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    That’s the impression I get of him also. I have met people like him, they have some curiosity, but have never learned the techniques of rational thinking. If an idea pops into their heads, and they agree with it, they say it. If someone argues against it, they generate a special-plead statement or two about how it could possibly still be true, and they continue to believe it.

    “Exxon has a car which runs on water, but they supress it.”
    “Wouldn’t chemists figure it out and tell the world?”
    “Hmm. Well, chemists get their money from the government, and George Bush controls the government, so he’s helping supress it.”
    “I know some chemistry, including Heats of Formation etc, and enthalpies, and there’s no way water could power a car.”
    “Who do you think wrote the textbooks you read? So I guess they filled your mind with misinformation.”
    “But wouldn’t *somebody* have built this kind of engine, and show it off?”
    “Hmm. They must be killing everyone who tries.”

    My simple hypothesis about people like this is, they spend all their time figuring out why they’re right. Rational thinking involves figuring out how you could be wrong, and weighing the probabilities.

  • 2006/07/18 at 7:18 am
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    I think Dr. Hovind IS being persecuted. Unlike the leaders of the evolutionist community, he shows facts and presents evidence to support his theories. I am an independent thinker and have studied both sides of this issue intently. The only conclusion I can come to is that if you speak out about ways the govt. is taking away your freedoms in the name of security, then this is what happens to you.

  • 2006/07/18 at 2:43 pm
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    What is a “fact” in the following?

    Did you know the possum, the redwood tree and the kidney bean all have 22 chromosomes? Identical triplets. See, that’s a possum; that’s the tree and kidney bean. Hey! Got them right! Look at that! The average scientist can’t tell the difference. They’ve got 22 chromosomes-all three of them. “Let’s see: we’ve got tree, possum, kidney bean and huh, which one is which? I don’t know.”

    (Kent Hovind)

    Is the “average scientist” unable to tell apart individuals of different species that all happen to have 22 chromosomes?

    My answer is here.

  • 2006/07/18 at 2:50 pm
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    I tend to be a little less impressed by the folks whose yammering about oppressive government has the apparent proximal cause of bolstering their financial bottom line at the expense of their neighbors.

    There are plenty of people who have been denied their civil liberties unfairly by the government whose reputations should not be tarnished by lumping Kent Hovind in with them.

  • 2006/07/19 at 6:33 am
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    Note that this is the same guy who claims that the guns in his house were ‘owned’ by the church.

    WWJD? …with a gun?

    Now, why does talk of Hovind and his followers remind me of the 1982 movie, ‘Poltergeist’?

  • 2006/07/19 at 8:41 am
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    It is too bad that someone with such great potential for teaching creation had to blow his testimony by doing something so stupid. Is the government taking our money in ways our forefathers never intended? YES. Can we do anything about it? NO. It is ridiculous that he even tried (not to mention that his rationale seems skewed). Anyway, this has nothing to do with being a Christian. I can’t stand to see people “lumping” all Creationists (and Bible believers) into the same category as Mr. Hovind. Just because we believe the Bible and creation doesn’t mean that we are all tax-evaders!

  • 2006/07/19 at 4:08 pm
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    ‘Great potential for teaching creation’? Hovind is one of the worst of the bunch. Kurt Wise maintains at least a modicum of honesty. In contrast, Hovind is a ‘kitchen sink’ creationist: There is no argument bad enough for Dr. Dino to reject.

  • 2006/07/19 at 7:43 pm
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    I’m not sure why people talk about “potential” when it comes to folks like Phillip Johnson or Kent Hovind. It makes about as much sense as arguing over how much “potential” a retired baseball player has for the game: discussion of potential is misplaced and what should proceed is discussion of the record that person left. It’s not like Hovind is some bright young star, a rookie to the discussion. Just as “Whatever” notes, Hovind has demonstrated over and over that virtually no antievolution argument is too bad for him to use. Even when his fellow young-earth creationists took issue with Hovind’s use of several arguments, Hovind basically said that he thought the arguments were still good and that he would continue to use them.

    Hovind is very good at showmanship. His ability to defend a particular argument, though, is weak, especially when the mode of engagement is via a written exchange rather than oral argument. This accounts for his curious refusal to take up arguments as an exchange of written essays, and his insistence that exchanges should be made live and as oral argument.

  • 2006/10/17 at 9:35 am
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    Here is what Dr. Hovind writes about how all this started.

    People who love truth need to know that the IRS has gone through other grand juries that saw the facts and refused to indict me so the IRS called a “secret” (I think the IRS calls it a ‘special’) grand jury just to get me. No witnesses were called for our side. Even when they got the “indictment” notice the IRS did not simply call me to come in or send a $.37 letter. No, they brought in a swat team to drag my sick wife out of bed and handcuffed her in her nightgown. They refused to let her get dressed, put on a robe or even go to the bathroom even though she begged for these simple courtesies. The agents rushed her and I into a squad car then into a freezing cell for 3 hrs! The fact that judges and local sheriffs and even juries blindly assist the IRS in breaking the law is no marvel since they fear the IRS’s Gestapo style tactics as well. (See http://www.sceblogs.com for the full story.)

    Doesn’t it make you proud to live in a FREE land where the police are FREE to come with the IRS in the dark hours of the morning and FREEly take people from their beds? When I was a child my mother told me of the horror stories coming out of Germany. She said, “Over there, they can come and knock on your door and take the man of the house away, and his family never sees him again.” Are we soon going to see this kind of “law enforcement” in the United States?

  • 2006/10/17 at 9:38 am
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    What Irs did to Mr. Kent Hovind

    People who love truth need to know that the IRS has gone …. they brought in a swat team to drag my sick wife out of bed and handcuffed her in her nightgown. They refused to let her get dressed, put on a robe or even go to the bathroom even though she begged for these simple courtesies. The agents rushed her and I into a squad car then into a freezing cell for 3 hrs! The fact that judges and local sheriffs and even juries blindly assist the IRS in breaking the law is no marvel since they fear the IRS’s Gestapo style tactics as well. (See http://www.sceblogs.com for the full story.)

  • 2006/10/17 at 5:58 pm
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    Maybe the IRS agents had accessed the previous record of Kent Hovind’s assault on a tenant and decided not to trust in his better nature. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but one wrong like that can make people decide to come armed rather than unarmed and unprepared.

  • 2006/10/21 at 5:06 pm
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    I disagree with Becky, Kent Hovind did not blow his testimony. He just thinks the Constitution is real and we know it isn’t.
    Anyway, he wins every debate Period. He shouldn’t if evolution were true but no one has any proof for it. Has anyone seen a the nonsense that has been disproven years ago like the horse evolution. And who disproved it? An evolutionist! In fact creationists just quote, for the most part, evolutionists. It’s been about 140 since Darwin. Can we have so evidence please!

    The good news is that we are all going to die. We will find out then. I hope you have things in order because if evolution is wrong the consequences will be terrible.

    Also, there is proof for the existence of God. The Bible gives history in advance. I mean, who knew that you would used numbers to by and sell and without them you can’t conduct transactions very well. I know, I used to work for Standard & Poor’s CUSIP Service Bureau. You cannot trade on any exchange without it. In fact, I worked with Brussels on CINS, pronounced SINS, Cusip International Numbering System. These are facts.

    God bless Kent Hovind!

    Robert

  • 2006/10/22 at 4:25 am
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    Robert,

    May I recommend reading Douglas Futuyma’s textbook, Evolutionary Biology? That might make a start in bringing you up to speed on this topic.

  • 2006/11/04 at 6:14 pm
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    I work in geology, geochemistry, and geophysics and know that no truth in these subjects has ever come from the lips of Hovind. He is laughable.

    He does not even know why scientific hypotheses exist — otherwise he wouldn’t refer to evolutionary theory as some ‘religion’. Neither does he undertand the nature of scientific evidence — where scientific evidence is simply an instance of confirmation of some hypothesis test. Ultimately science itself MUST be a religion to him because somehow he thinks that proving observations is a hallmark of scientific method. In reality, observation is only a prerequesite and is not itself science — ‘observables’ are utilized by scientific methods, they are not themselves ‘science’. Scientific method is hypothesis testing. If evolutionary theory can be tested, which it has, then it is science. And it has been tested. My colleagues and I test it every day in our labs. We deal meticulously with the data. Hovind just turns science into some sort of freak show.

    Maybe if he read something of more substance than hundreds of grade school textbooks. Perhaps he’ll have plenty of time to do that while he’s in jail for 200 years.

    He is not being persecuted as a christian, but ‘persecuted’ as one who has intentionally evaded fundamental national laws.

  • 2006/11/08 at 6:11 am
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    May God spare. I can do nothing except pray for all you above my message.

  • 2006/11/08 at 11:46 am
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    Actually, there is more that you could do. You could become informed about the content of evolutionary biology. The textbook by Futuyma that I cited previously is a good place to get a lot of information.

  • 2006/11/12 at 6:32 pm
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    Austringer in that link you gave its stated that scientists can tell apart individuals of the same species by their genetic information …ok i understand this but the thing that botters me is how can they tell that on fossils? If they would find the fosile of a chihuahua and a saint bernard how could they know they are from the same specie? I am not a creationist i am just curios of this since i cant seem to find an answer to this!

  • 2006/11/12 at 11:32 pm
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    I´m not sure that I understand the question. Are you asking whether scientists are too confused to tell apart fossil opussums, fossil trees, and fossil kidney beans, if they were to be presented with such examples? That was, after all, the groups Hovind said that they could not tell apart in modern day examples.

  • 2006/11/13 at 5:29 pm
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    Well this is not about Hovind. Some of my friends tell me that transitional fossils (the ones i have showned them)cant be distinguesed! They say if i would have found the fossil of a saint bernard and the fossil of a chiuhuahua i couldent tell that they belong to the same specie and i as an evo would consider them distinct species and all the dogs i would later found i would use them as links between them showing evolution works and the transitional fossils i found proove that. They always get me there :) (hope you can understand what i am trying to say my native language is not english)

  • 2006/11/14 at 12:40 am
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    Your friends should take a comparative vertebrate anatomy course. For mammals, the dental formula and tooth morphology is pretty much all that you need to know to either split or lump.

    Consider the antievolution argument that one cannot tell apart a thylacine (a marsupial) and a wolf (a placental mammal). In fact, it is pretty easy to tell these apart. The dental formula is different, and the thylacine has palatal holes that the wolf does not. There are several more morphological clues that tell us that these are quite different species. The molecular data confirms that.

    So that’s got it both ways — it is possible to group the Chihuahua and the St. Bernard based upon morphology, and it is possible to distinguish the thylacine and the wolf based on morphology. Scientists are not nearly so clueless as your friends make them out to be.

  • 2006/11/14 at 9:04 am
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    Thanks a lot Austringer. I guess i am really the one to blame for not doing my homework well!

  • 2006/11/14 at 11:27 pm
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    Dr. Kent Hovind is a worker of the Lord our God. And if you want to see a man like Dr. Kent Hovind arrested and rejoice behind it, then obviously, YOU don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ!

    Think about that…

    God Bless You,

    Karen

  • 2006/11/15 at 2:21 am
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    I am among those have been to college, and all that and I am thrilled to report, still believe the Bible is the Word of God.
    On Hovind–I can completely disagree with a man on an issue, but wholeheartedly agree on another. I don’t “throw away the baby with the bath water”. Never met him, but he seems to have gone out on a limb based on some historical/ constitutional issues which while possibly be defensible, are UN-WINNABLE, and NOT WORTH IT. Jesus warned us about such issues: Matthew 17:24-27– “And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute (tax) money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master (Jesus) pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and GIVE UNTO THEM for me and thee.” Therefore I think Kent ought to pay the tax and get on with life. I DON’T think he ought to pay for his unwavering faith in God our Creator, but for unwise and unadvised positions on the tax issues.

  • 2006/11/15 at 3:44 pm
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    Ms. Brimley,

    If you think that Hovind himself has lived up to the standard that you set there for tolerance of other Christian believers, you are sadly mistaken.

    Kevin,

    No, Hovind should not be “paying” for his faith, and in point of fact, he isn’t. He is being prosecuted over those tax matters.

    Persecution is tough to come by for a Christian in the USA. Some of what passes for “persecution” today is simply that some people aren’t allowed to do as much bullying of others as they would like to do, and then they whine about being “persecuted” themselves. There is real persecution around, as in the racial persecution that made lynching an all too common pastime within living memory in this country, and led to the harrowing of those of Jewish faith in World War II. The casual use of “persecution” by fat, complacent people today cheapens the word and dishonors the memory of those who encountered real persecution.

  • 2006/11/22 at 1:47 am
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    I can’t believe people can dump all this garbage on someone just because he has a different view on something or many things!!!! This is all trash! Kent Hovind is part of the church and so is all he owns! Why dos he have to pay taxes for something that isn’t “tax-able”?!?!?!?!?!

  • 2006/11/23 at 12:17 am
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    Usually by reading someones comments on a given topic or about a certain person will tell you a little about the individual. It is evident that Mr. Austringer has problem with Mr. Hovind and no matter what he hears of the man he has nothing good to speak of him. This attitude would lead me to question his motives and to what degree he would embelish the truth so that others will take to his side. True, open minded men can always find something good in another human. I’m sure even Mr. Austringer has some good qualities.

  • 2006/11/24 at 5:24 pm
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    Hovind has no lack of people who will point out perceived good things about him. I don’t think that I am doing anyone any favors by becoming complicit in covering over Hovind’s faults.

    I think a quick review of Proverbs 9:7, Proverbs 9:8, Proverbs 10:17, Proverbs 12:1, and Proverbs 13:18 would be in order. Remember the issue about equal numbers of chromosomes means scientists aren’t supposed to be able to tell organisms apart? Hovind has been corrected on that many times, yet his web site still offers the erroneous information.

    One of our ancestors must have been one of the identical triplets—opossums, redwood trees, and kidney beans—with 22 chromosomes each.

    If I get something wrong, I have a record of correcting errors. Perhaps that’s one of those qualities that Robert kindly allows me.

  • 2006/11/26 at 1:46 am
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    Mr Elsberry,
    In your response you claim that Dr. Hovind is “telling a whopper” when he uses this example to make his point. Perhaps his example is slighty more comical than what is actually taught however his principle is correct. As a student at a northwest college I can personally attest that a similar principle is taught as support for the evolutionary theory. It is obvious that you have overlooked Hovind’s purpose behind this statement. Teaching that organisms evolve into those with greater numbers (or same numbers) of chromosomes IS ludicrous as support for evolutionary theory.

  • 2006/11/26 at 5:15 am
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    I would like to know what the charges were for Kent Hovind’s arrest. Such a document is surely too old to be applies to our daily lives. (written with as much sarcasm as possible)..Mr. Hovind’s ministry has still educated, and ministered to so many people, and reguardless of what happened , his word, and more importantly those of the bible, are true.

  • 2006/11/26 at 5:20 am
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    All comments posted to this website are “moderated” which means that the “owners’ take out what they wna to and arrange it to fit thier propaganda.

  • 2006/11/29 at 4:22 am
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    Have any studied the work of Micheal Behe and the irreducible complexity of the bacterial phlegelom’s tail and rotor section. Irreducible complexity means something can not function if even one part is missing. The best example of this is a mouse trap, all its parts (the board, spring, latch, hammer etc) are required for function of the device. Without the board we lose function, without the spring we lose function. The bacterial phlegelom’s tail and rotor is 40 part irreducibly complex. If all adaptation has to be benifical, it is impossible for the phlegelom to have evolved over time. It can not evolve this part of its body over time, if you grew a tail you couldnt turn until you evolved and grew 40 more parts, I wouldn’t call that beneficial. Evolution is non-sense. But I digress. The government spends more money in a day on war than we can even fathom, on our dime mind you. The federal reserve is a gang that has the power to counterfit money at will. Federal Reserve notes have zero backing from actual gold. The congress refuses to audit the gold stores. 9-11 is scientifically an obvious government planned and executed attack on the American people, almost exactly mirroring the Northwood opperation tactics of staging terror attacks on American soil, that was shot down by president Kennedy. And we all saw what happened to him. Rapers and Murders seeing less time in jail than a “tax cheat” should be enough to make one lose faith in the system that is instilled to protect us. I love that they are charging him with more than 200 years like its not a life sentence. This is a CRIME. And people should take a stand. I recommend that all people see the following films off the internet if possible.
    1. Freedom to Fascism by Aaron Russo. Discusses the illegallity of the federal income tax. You won’t believe your eyes and ears.
    2. Loose Change. The best 9-11 video there is.
    3. In plane site. pretty much loose change but goes more in depth into the Airplanes being US military planes and the missles that were launched into the building pre-impact.

    There is plenty more to study, study the history of Free Masonry. Study the history of the Bush family as far back as W’s grandpa Prescott Bush and how he was indited for treason and Nazi funding during the 2 world war. Study the space program and NASA.

    They call us sheeple, if you aren’t a sheep that is merely led to your idealology, study up, this is way bigger than just evolution and kent hovind. We are in a well of s@#t and its going to take a lot of us to dig us out, if we even can. Deny the national ID card, deny the implantation of chips for purchasing, deny the digitalization of currancy while the government holds our gold at ransom. I AM NOT A SHEEP.

  • 2006/12/02 at 5:26 am
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    Have any studied the work of Micheal Behe and the irreducible complexity of the bacterial phlegelom’s tail and rotor section.

    […]

    I AM NOT A SHEEP.

    True. Even sheep manage to learn — and retain — knowledge, as in Keith Kendrick’s research. The estimable Dr. Behe got the spelling of “flagellum” correct, and one might expect that someone who had studied his work might have picked that up. Of course, Dr. Behe didn’t get anywhere close on the number of unique required parts for a bacterial flagellum — between parts shown to be unneeded in some form of bacterial flagellum and those with homologies to other proteins serving different functions, the current count of flagellar proteins that are both required and without currently known homologies is down around two. See the Pallen and Matzke article that appeared earlier this year in Nature Microbiology, IIRC.

    But I would be interested in the etymology of “phlegelom”. That’s a humdinger of a spelling.

  • 2006/12/04 at 12:52 am
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    Well, I do not agree with Dr. hovind not paying taxes, but what he teaches is not a lie like evolution. If evolution was true where are the intermediate stages of evolution? Where are all the supposed facts for this. Remember this is just a theory, and a bad one at that. The fact is that when people acknowledge a creator then they have to acknowledge their sin which is convicting. I didn’t want to until Christ touched my heart and I realized that He loves me and was not out to “get me” as most people think. The fact that an all knowing and all loving creator reached down to sinful man to repair a broken relationship due to the original sin in the garden of eden, now that’s something to believe in. And it’s real. Please don’t use the argument that if God is so loving why is there suffering. We have created our own suffering by removing Him from our lives here on earth so we can have our own way. Did God make Hitler do the evil he did? Did God make hurricane katrina really kill all those people? Come on guys lets use our heads and think it through. God loves us all and He has an outstretched hand waiting for anyone who will just trust Him. And unless you have studied the bible indepth, please don’t tell me it is just a bunch of stories that are untrue. Read it for yourself and dig into real historical fact and see for yourself. Don’t trust man’s wisdom, it is a complete let down. Look around and see what’s going on. That’s the best we can do. Think about it……..Blessings

  • 2006/12/14 at 1:58 pm
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    I repeat Constantin. May God spare you. Austringer, what are your motives? Have you gotten so caught up in defying Kent Hovind that you have forgotten God? from a surprised teen that wonders how many righteous Christians there are that will stand up for what they believe in.

  • 2006/12/16 at 4:33 pm
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    After spending numerous hours looking into this income tax issue and the IRS arrest of the Hovinds,I have only found:
    -The state of Florida is one of the nine states which do not impose a personal income tax.
    -According to the Constitution, the income tax is not put into effect unless foreign money is being used.
    -Kent Hovind was acquitted by three grand juries.
    -The IRS violated the fourth Amendment when the Hovinds were arrested.
    -The eighth Amendment is being violated when Kent Hovind could possibly serve up to 288 years in prison. His wife could serve 220 years.(On April 26,2006 Ovarias Criego was sentenced to 18 years in prison for second degree murder yet the Hovinds could serve a total of 508 years for tax fraud)
    Think about it!

  • 2006/12/30 at 8:09 pm
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    I went to college with Kent Hovind for two years back in the early 70’s. We were good friends. I have had limited contact with him since graduation because we both were very busy in our careers.

    I am sad to see all the hate displayed against a man who was just proclaiming what he beleived. I am also sad that he took on the IRS. No one likes to pay taxes. If Kent wanted to lead a tax revolt, he certainly had the right but he should not have involved his family and ministry.

    I believe some of his reasons for not paying taxes are valid but he should have payed them and used his energy to help change the laws. I think he could have avoided all this if he would have listened to people who advised him not to take on the IRS in this way.

    Finally I am sad that in this so called pluralistic nation Christians many times are dismissed and berated as less than intelligent. Becoming a Christian does not mean disengaging your brain.

    The Bible commands us to go into the world and share the good news of what Christ has done for us. There is no NT passage that says we are to take the world by force and create a Christian theocracy. We just want to have the right to live our faith and proclaim it without government interference. Sharing and practicing your faith is the true mark of being a Christian. Faith cannot be seperated from politics or public life any more than you can seperate a man from his remote control.(Ha!Ha!)

    I am a ordained minister and scientist(Gemologist). I have also studied apologetics,theology, history and philosophy. I consider myself a fairly well educated person. I don’t understand why the secularists and humanists who claim to be more intelligent than us “born again” types, want to silence us in the market place of ideas. What are they afraid of? Let the public decide who is right. Obviously when it comes to the creation vrs. evolution debate we can only have two outcomes. One side is right and the other is wrong or neither side is right.

    Since none of us were around in the beginning what ever side you choose it is an act of faith. Today in a court we would call it circumstantial evidence. Our job is to study and figure out which side has more evidence than the other.

    I challenge all evolutionists, humanists, and secularists to re-open the schools and universities to the creationists after all we were the ones who founded them. What are you afraid of? (Get er dun)

  • 2006/12/31 at 2:51 pm
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    “The marketplace of ideas” in this case is not the public school secondary classroom. The “marketplace of ideas” is the scientific community when it comes to determining how well claims about the natural world match the empirical evidence. All that anyone need do to get their ideas into public secondary school science textbooks is make a convincing scientific case for those ideas to the scientific community. McClintock did it with transposons. Margulis did it with endosymbiosis. Eldredge and Gould did it with punctuated equilibria. Evolutionary science is changing in accord with what the scientific method demonstrates.

    On the other hand, one doesn’t see cryptozoology and homeopathy going into the textbooks anytime soon, despite the fact that either of those has far, far more published research on those topics than any form of special creation. Cryptozoologists and homeopathy advocates at least know where they need to make their case, a fact that eludes most antievolutionists.

    Further, science can, and has, determined that certain ideas are wrong. Phlogiston is a discredited theory of heat; it will not be coming back as a scientific explanation. Likewise, claims that the earth is no older than a few thousand years is contradicted by evidence of ice cores, varves, and paleosols that directly record a continuous record far longer than young earth advocates claim is the total age of the earth. That idea is, like phlogiston, dead as a doornail and will not be coming back as a scientific idea.

    Circumstantial evidence is the sort preferred in science. Very few branches of science even admit testimonial evidence. There is good reason for this. Cognitive science has found that human memory is exceedingly fallible, and is quite susceptible to generating false memories. Circumstantial evidence, on the other hand, can be evaluated by any number of researchers, who can verify that the same conclusions can be drawn as others who looked at the same evidence found. Circumstantial evidence evaluated by intersubjective experience is the closest thing humans can have to objective knowledge.

    Over 10,000 US clergy disgree with Mike’s adoption of the “conflict model” of the relation between science and religion:

    We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as “one theory among others” is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God’s loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris. We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.

    What are we “afraid” of? Certainly not the pathetic, antique, bogus antievolution arguments advanced by Hovind and his cheerleaders. But the idea that we would perpetuate ignorance of that sort in our children does indicate a callous disregard for truth that I find inconsistent with the teachings of Christ.

    What “secularists and humanists” are we talking about here? That certainly doesn’t describe me, so why is this complaint turning up in comments on my post?

  • 2007/01/02 at 10:59 pm
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    I wonder how many of those 10,000 ministers believe in the inerrancy of Scripture? Speaking about intelligence, it is intellectually dishonest to say you believe the Bible is the Word of God and in next breath that you believe in Macro evolution. The Bible says, “In the beginning God,” evolution says, millions of years ago “big bang.”

    The Greeks developed the Law of Non-contradiction. “A” cannot be “A” and non “A” at the same time. The Bible claims to be “truth.” It claims to come from God and it declares the ways of God. Therefore it cannot be truth in some things and not others. If the Genesis account of Creation is not how the earth began, than the none of the rest of the Bible can be trusted and the debate is over. So the question is, who or what are you going to believe?

    For at least five thousand years and the first two hundred years of American history, the Bible was an accepted text book in teaching Cosmology. The Bible describes a literal creation “ex-nihilo.” by a literal God. The recording of these scriptures were preserved and pasted down for thousands of years.

    In fact, nearly every institution of higher learning until the mid twentieth century, taught that science and scripture were joined at the hip. Theology and Science were presented side by side as inseparable. After all if God was the creator, His Book the Bible should not contradict science but confirm it. The wisest man who ever lived, Solomon said, The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

    It is no coincidence that evolution began to really take hold in the early twentieth century when liberal theologians began to question the reliability of the Bible. At the same time philosophers like Niche, declared that “God was dead.” Both the Communist’s and Nazis embraced evolution and declared the State was more important than the individual, While the U.S. embraced the God of the Bible and the rights of the individual.

    Then in the 1950’s our education system began to change under John Dewey and others. They began to move education away from learning information to embracing pluralism and relativism. The teachings about the role that God played in the founding of our country was being down played. By the time the sixties rolled around the baby boomers were questioning all authority including the Bible. That was the beginning of the secularization of our society and removing any vestige of God and faith. So it is no surprise that today in our state run schools creation is not given any consideration at all. Evolution became the state religion!

    So when you study the “evolution” of evolution you discover it has it’s roots in philosophy and promotes it’s own epistemology. That is why a true Christian that has studied the origins of evolution cannot accept it as pure science.

    Every evolutionist I have ever met, or read or listened to puts more confidence in the accomplishments of man than he does in the Revelation of God,(humanism). So you see evolution is more of a religion than science. You must worship at the feet of Darwin and put your faith in the “Origin of Species.”

    If science contradicts the Bible than the science is faulty. The Bible has proven to be reliable in every discipline; history, archaeology, prophecy, theology and science.

    Christianity is the only religion with a declared creator and savior. I believe that is why the humanists and secularist must accept evolution. If they accept the creator God, they must accept the Savior God!

    Bottom line, the debate is not evolution vs. creation, it is humanism vs. Christianity. I will concede that if the Bible cannot be totally trusted in everything, it cannot be trusted in anything!

    I’ll choose God and the “Bible” over Darwin and “Origins of Species” any day.

  • 2007/01/07 at 5:50 pm
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    I agree with Mike(40) and Jeromy (32). I just wanted to add to their comments. This is only the beginning of persecution for Christians in America. The good news is the Lord will return soon to rule over the earth. God will only tarry long enough for his church(bride) to be ready. All Christians and all Americans should watch the movies: 9/11 Press for Truth, Alex Jones Masters of Terror, TerrorStorm, 911 in Plane Sight, Loose Change, The Truth About the London Bombings,Steven Jones(BYU Physics Professor) interviewed by Alex Jones on WTC collapse, and Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. You can watch all videos at http://www.video.google.com. This will only give you the beginning of how corrupt our country is. Concentration Camps in America are real!!! The mark of the beast is close!!! Verichips(RFID inplants in your right hand or forehead so you can buy or sell). If you are blessed enough to not be executed! 9/11 was an inside job!!!Wake UP America!!! Read the Patriot Act, Patriot Act II, and Victory Act. The Constitution does not exist anymore. You can now be imprisoned 30 years for a misdemeanor without being able to confront those who charge you. You can even be executed! Read the acts!!! This is true!!! There is a war going on in America between God and Satan. Evolution is the last thing we need to worry about now. The souls of all your friends and family are at stake. Spread the Gospel to all before it is to late.
    By the way I have been a Republican my whole life and voted for George W. Bush twice! I am ashamed that I was not informed before hand. Not to say Democrats are any better. Both parties are the same. We need America to wake UP!!!! There is still time to save our country.

    Please watch all videos and judge for yourself.

    God(The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) Bless!

  • 2007/01/11 at 10:28 pm
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    Thank you josh. Thanks to all the Americans who love our nation and our constitution. Thanks you Kent Hovind for your sefless life of service. You put me to shame! Me and too many others just go along with Illegal IRS Mob and pay them money that our authority (the Constitution) does not entitle them to. Thank you for your example of patriotism to our Nation (the Constitution)

  • 2007/01/12 at 2:09 pm
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    ( Encouragement for Kent Hovind)
    Mtt 18:21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

    (To all that speak contrary to the bible, and say it is the truth)
    John 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

    (To all that speak contrary to the bible, and say it is the truth)
    John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.

    (To all that promote lies in the text books)
    1 Cor 8:12 But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

    (Come to your senses all that have not the knowledge of God)
    1 Cor 15:34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

    (To all that speak publicly against the word of God, You will be publicly rebuked)
    1 Tim 5:20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

    (To all that intentionally speak against the Word of God, God promises Judgment)
    Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28He that despised Moses? law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? 30For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.

    (To all that blame God)
    James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither temteth he any man:

    (Every man is tempted of his own sinful nature)
    James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither temteth he any man:

    (All lusts lead to sin and sin leads to death)
    James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 16Do not err, my beloved brethren. 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

    (For everyone who knows the truth and does contrary)
    James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

    ( Satan is the father of all sin. all Sin is of the devil)
    1 John 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.

    (It is sin not to believe in Jesus Christ/ The Word of God. All sin = Death)
    Jn 8:21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. 22Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. 23And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. 24I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

    (To all that inwardly know what is truth but take the other road)
    Mtt 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men?s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

    ( To All: God = love therefore love God)
    John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

  • 2007/01/13 at 12:13 am
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    These types of replies really make me worry. My kids are growing up in the 21st century, yet there are millions of people still trying to live in the Dark Ages.

    I won’t even try to argue with the antievolutionist folks, it’s pointless.

    Then again, I find guys like Mr. Elsberry on the Internet and think that all might not be lost.

  • 2007/01/14 at 2:04 pm
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    Make you worry John???????????? I should hope so. About not arguing with us (Dark Age) folks is probably a good idea. We would open your eyes too much to the truth. There is man that will go on trial for his faith in six days. Though most people don’t seem to care, The Lord Jesus Christ will reward Dr. Kent Hovind far above what he could hope to recieve. By the way, they might have to release him sooner than the trial date as he has started quite a jail ministry down in Pensacola. God Bless Dr. and Mrs Hovind! We’re praying for you.
    A Dark Ages Teen

  • 2007/01/18 at 8:02 pm
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    Dr. Kent and Mrs. Jo Hovinds trial is tomorrow morning at 9:00 A.M. EST time. This is just a reminder to everyone to pray that they will be acquitted! God Bless Them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • 2007/01/18 at 9:15 pm
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    Jared,

    The hearing tomorrow is for sentencing. It is possible that the judge could decide to overturn the guilty verdict returned by the jury in the case. That, however, is only slightly more likely than both President Bush and Vice President Cheney resigning and turning themselves in with signed confessions of high crimes and misdemeanors tomorrow.

    Looking on the web, it appears that the median sentence received by convicted felon tax dodgers like Kent Hovind is 22 months. The median time served is 12 months. The idea that Hovind will receive no jail time (or no further jail time; I’m sure that the period since the trial will be applied to whatever sentence comes down) is likely simply a fantasy.

  • 2007/01/19 at 9:13 pm
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    True Austringer. Are you satisfied that an innocent man was finally condemned by the IRS? Do you just claim to be a Christian or are you one? This whole case has opened my eyes so much to the truth about what is really happening in America today. It’s sad that it had to come about through the trials of the Hovinds though. I’m sure many people would say the same thing.
    I hope this blog is soon to be finished. Haven’t the Hovinds had enough condeming? Our prayers are with you.

  • 2007/01/19 at 10:26 pm
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    The verdict is in. Kent will receive 10 yrs. with 3 yrs.probation.

    My heart is heavy because none of this had to happen. As others have written he could have used his vast audience to begin a grass roots movement like the fair tax to change the laws.

    I am upset with him because he involved his family and employees. If he wanted as a individual to go against the IRS that is his right. But involve other people in my opinion is not his call.

    I want to clear up a misconception that some have about ministries and taxes. Non profit organizations like the Red Cross or Salvation Army and most religious groups and churches are excempt from property taxes only. Because most of the money raised by these groups are utilized for the good of society.

    However, all employees of these organizations are required to pay personal income tax and SS tax. There is one exception. If you have been ordained by a recognized group you have up to one year after ordination to declare a vow of poverty and avoid paying social security tax on income from ministry only. You are still required to pay income tax. The government does afford ministers some additional tax breaks like housing allowence but they are still required to file with the IRS.

    So remember, non profit organizations do not pay taxes, but employees do!

    My greater despair today is that those who want to attack the credibility of outspoken creationists like Kent will have more fuel for the fire.

    Just like in every profession there are some bad examples of what not to do. But the majority of people play by the rules.

    My hope is that we can keep our focus on the arguements of this debate and not one the people voicing them. Both sides can improve greatly here.

    I know many of you hate Kent and that disturbs me. In America free speech is a fundamental right. You can disagree all you want with the views of Kent and other creationists who dare speak up for the Bible. All people should be able to hear both sides and make up their own mind which side to embrace.

    Let’s use our passion for discussing the issues not the people presenting them. Both sides of this debate are guilty of mud slinging and it is time to stop.

    Kent is a human being who is very passionate about what God has called him to do. He is my brother in Christ and no matter what happens to him he will always be my friend. He is a man who is willing to stand up for his convictions even if it means going to jail. In this relativistic society it is refreshing to see someone who stands for something even if it means ridicule or prison

    I can understand why so many people hate Kent for his fundamentalist faith and his young earth stance. He is confident and unwavering. But that is not a reason to dispise him. He is alwalys willing to debate anyone who wants to discuss the issues.

    If a evolutionist had the same enthusiasm about the “Origin of the Species” they have every right to go around the world and spread the gospel according to “Darwin.”

    Let’s keep the discussion about the issues and not about the messanger, no matter what side they are on!

  • 2007/01/20 at 8:08 pm
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    Amen Mike! Take a look at the issue, not the people. The issue was tax fraud. If ya’ll would take a look at the tax LAWS, the only income that is taxable is foreign. I didn’t believe it myself till I took a look. P.s. don’t search for IRS codes, but IRC (Internal Revenue Code) not Service.

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