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Hi,

I am pretty new to advanced apologetics, and I really liked Kent Hovind and all his stuff when I first stumbled across him. Some people on this forum and some people I know in my personal life have told me that he isn't a good source for christian science and that he has really bad scientific support for his ideas. I was just wondering what you guys thought about him and his ideas. I am NOT looking for why Hovind is a stupid person, or why he is a dishonest person, or anything about him personally, just wondering about his science.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Curtis
 

brinny

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Hi,

I am pretty new to advanced apologetics, and I really liked Kent Hovind and all his stuff when I first stumbled across him. Some people on this forum and some people I know in my personal life have told me that he isn't a good source for christian science and that he has really bad scientific support for his ideas. I was just wondering what you guys thought about him and his ideas. I am NOT looking for why Hovind is a stupid person, or why he is a dishonest person, or anything about him personally, just wondering about his science.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Curtis

I was blown away by his presentation of information and support of creation. In my opinion, he's a gifted and brilliant man.
 
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Not to be overly snarky, but:
Start with the second link on the page (TO's critique of Kent Hovind's $250,000 "offer") and we'll go from there.

All that link did was slander him. It talked about how his offers where stupid and his terminology different from the rest of society. I understand that the man is loudly outspoken and really really cocky and has very little credentials and that he needs to go about presenting his theories a different way. What I'm looking for is someone to point out just one of his proofs for young earth creation and tell me why is is wrong or why it is even probably wrong. All anyone can come up with is why Hovind is a bad person, or why how he presents his theories are gimmicky, nobody has yet to say anything about his science. Not himself, His science.
 
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Standing_Ultraviolet

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Kent Hovind has an unfortunate tendency to accept the more unusual claims that are made by some creationists, and as a result, most don't recommend him. I'm not going to judge him as a person, but some of the evidence which he gives is based on urban legends and false claims (for example, using the claim that giant skeletons and sandbags from the ark have been found in the middle east as part of his work in a study Bible) so it can be extremely damaging to try to use it to advance Christianity. I would steer clear of his work for that reason alone.
 
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brinny

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Kent Hovind has an unfortunate tendency to accept the more unusual claims that are made by some creationists, and as a result, most don't recommend him. I'm not going to judge him as a person, but some of the evidence which he gives is based on urban legends and false claims (for example, the claim that giant skeletons have been found in the middle east), so it can be extremely damaging to try to use it to advance Christianity. I would steer clear of his work for that reason alone.

Giant skeletons? Where did he speak on this? Is there a video of it? The Bible records that there were giants. Goliath was one. Interesting.
 
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Kent Hovind has an unfortunate tendency to accept the more unusual claims that are made by some creationists, and as a result, most don't recommend him. I'm not going to judge him as a person, but some of the evidence which he gives is based on urban legends and false claims (for example, the claim that giant skeletons have been found in the middle east), so it can be extremely damaging to try to use it to advance Christianity. I would steer clear of his work for that reason alone.

I completely agree. I think he trusts a little too much in sources that he considers personal friends (like the wyatts) and doesn't check the facts behind his sources enough. I found that out after posting this OP though.
 
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Standing_Ultraviolet

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Giant skeletons? Where did he speak on this? Is there a video of it? The Bible records that there were giants. Goliath was one. Interesting.

To be honest, I'm not sure. I feel like he mentions it in one of the sections he did for the Evidence Bible (a sort of study Bible for open air evangelists that I saw on this site once, and which I would not personally recommend partly due to problems like this), but I couldn't find the exact one, so I'm not totally sure. I know, though, that he has mentioned it before.

As I said before, no giant skeletons have ever been found. Kent Hovind has made this claim, but it did not originate with him, and is not based on an actual event.
 
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mathetes123

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Hi,

I am pretty new to advanced apologetics, and I really liked Kent Hovind and all his stuff when I first stumbled across him. Some people on this forum and some people I know in my personal life have told me that he isn't a good source for christian science and that he has really bad scientific support for his ideas. I was just wondering what you guys thought about him and his ideas. I am NOT looking for why Hovind is a stupid person, or why he is a dishonest person, or anything about him personally, just wondering about his science.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Curtis

I enjoyed his videos. Unfortunately, all the skeptics will only focus on his sentencing for tax evasion which tends to diminish his testimony.
 
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sfs

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I enjoyed his videos. Unfortunately, all the skeptics will only focus on his sentencing for tax evasion which tends to diminish his testimony.
No, the skeptics (meaning anyone who isn't a die-hard creationist, but also including many creationists) thought he was spouting large volumes of nonsense long before his tax evasion conviction. His science is incompetent, his evidence is frequently fraudulent, his approach to the law got him sent to prison and his political beliefs are both insane and vile. Other than that, I'm sure he presents a fine testimony.
 
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No, the skeptics (meaning anyone who isn't a die-hard creationist, but also including many creationists) thought he was spouting large volumes of nonsense long before his tax evasion conviction. His science is incompetent, his evidence is frequently fraudulent, his approach to the law got him sent to prison and his political beliefs are both insane and vile. Other than that, I'm sure he presents a fine testimony.

Wow, I sure wish people would read the OP where Isaid that I'm not interested in SLANDER of the man without facts.What you said really proves nothing, and it added absolutely nothing to the conversation. You can do that with anyone. And that is besides the fact that it is a pretty unchristian way to talk about a person.
 
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Which particular theory of his is your favorite? (I'll even put it through LMGTFY for you, again.)

I couldn't find it posted anywhere but my favorite theory in particular is when he attempts to refute the dating method using ice cores by explaining that the layers don't represent winter summer winter summer but hot cold hot cold and he backed this up by showing how they found a plane that was buried that if dated using this method would have been a couple thousadn years old. obviously there where no planes that long ago.
 
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sfs

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Wow, I sure wish people would read the OP where Isaid that I'm not interested in SLANDER of the man without facts.What you said really proves nothing, and it added absolutely nothing to the conversation. You can do that with anyone. And that is besides the fact that it is a pretty unchristian way to talk about a person.

I was responding to someone else's post, not yours -- that sort of thing happens in threads. As for his science, every bit of it that I've seen has been riddled with error or outright fabrication (not necessarily by Hovind); as a Christian and a scientist, I think his efforts have had a disastrous effect on Christan's understanding of science. Some examples of facts that he gets wrong: "dinosaur footprints" that were forged, a plesiosaur carcass that was actually a shark, a giant's skeleton that never existed. Other invalid arguments: short period comets lose too much material each time they pass the sun to be billions of years old, the erosion of Niagara Falls shows the earth is young.

As shernren suggested, pick one of his arguments so it can be analyzed in more detail -- there are too many of them to give a blanket response.

(I realize you were not asking for political opinions, but since you disapprove of my expressed attitude toward Hovind, let me tell you why I have it: the man supports and promulgates the belief that the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an accurate historical account. The Protocols is the central document in modern antisemitism; it is a forged account of the Jewish plot to take over the world, and it constituted, in the words of one historian, Hitler's "warrant for genocide". Given the church's history of antisemitism and the enormous legacy of violence that the Protocols have produced, I believe that their promotion should be denounced by Christians in the starkest language possible. What the state of Hovind's soul is I have no idea, but some of what he preaches is indeed vile.)
 
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I was responding to someone else's post, not yours -- that sort of thing happens in threads. As for his science, every bit of it that I've seen has been riddled with error or outright fabrication (not necessarily by Hovind); as a Christian and a scientist, I think his efforts have had a disastrous effect on Christan's understanding of science. Some examples of facts that he gets wrong: "dinosaur footprints" that were forged, a plesiosaur carcass that was actually a shark, a giant's skeleton that never existed. Other invalid arguments: short period comets lose too much material each time they pass the sun to be billions of years old, the erosion of Niagara Falls shows the earth is young.

As shernren suggested, pick one of his arguments so it can be analyzed in more detail -- there are too many of them to give a blanket response.

(I realize you were not asking for political opinions, but since you disapprove of my expressed attitude toward Hovind, let me tell you why I have it: the man supports and promulgates the belief that the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an accurate historical account. The Protocols is the central document in modern antisemitism; it is a forged account of the Jewish plot to take over the world, and it constituted, in the words of one historian, Hitler's "warrant for genocide". Given the church's history of antisemitism and the enormous legacy of violence that the Protocols have produced, I believe that their promotion should be denounced by Christians in the starkest language possible. What the state of Hovind's soul is I have no idea, but some of what he preaches is indeed vile.)

Woah. That really is bad news. It's sad that he would support something like that. Knowing that I owe you bit of an apology for my earlier comment.
 
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shernren

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I couldn't find it posted anywhere but my favorite theory in particular is when he attempts to refute the dating method using ice cores by explaining that the layers don't represent winter summer winter summer but hot cold hot cold and he backed this up by showing how they found a plane that was buried that if dated using this method would have been a couple thousadn years old. obviously there where no planes that long ago.
http://www.christianforums.com/t7594269-7/#post58664904

The second half of the post describes why and how melt-freeze layers look completely different from surface hoar-depth hoar layers. The layers on top of the plane were melt-freeze and can indeed form multiple times per year; ice core layers are surface hoar-depth hoar layers that form annually and only in conditions where the snow is almost undisturbed.
 
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philadiddle

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http://www.christianforums.com/t7594269-7/#post58664904

The second half of the post describes why and how melt-freeze layers look completely different from surface hoar-depth hoar layers. The layers on top of the plane were melt-freeze and can indeed form multiple times per year; ice core layers are surface hoar-depth hoar layers that form annually and only in conditions where the snow is almost undisturbed.
That's a good thread you linked to!!! The links in the original post in that thread that lead to the quiet thread are also useful.

Hovind isn't really discrediting how ice core sampling works, he's discrediting his own made up version of it. When I saw Hovind 12ish years ago I bought into that argument too, but now that I understand how it actually works there's no way I can accept Hovind's argument.
 
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Woah. That really is bad news. It's sad that he would support something like that. Knowing that I owe you bit of an apology for my earlier comment.
Well, I didn't exactly make myself clear originally, so I don't think I'm owed an apology.
 
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