I wanted to drop this in. I signed up because I saw Denis’ debate with Kent Hovind. First, congratulations on the win Denis. I was so very impressed with your knowledge and appreciate you sharing it us. You are definitely a man of integrity and intelligence. Kent is very disingenuous with his interpretations and teachings. I really hope his group is not, or will not ever become a majority. It really bothers me spiritually to hear him tell people they are going to hell if they don’t believe as he does. His way of thinking and teaching is actually very dangerous. The young people hear these things and believe them because they come from an adult. The adults who are in need and searching for the true path believe him because be says he has credentials (from pay to pray schools) and they need something to believe in. He is very dangerous and I am worried that his arrogance will feed the insanity that he breaths. I know there is no real way to stop it yet I hope and pray.
Welcome to the forum! After looking around, I think this is the debate you are referring to:
I have not not seen it but looks interesting. If you want to discuss it, it might be good to start a new post about it. It is late night here at the moment, but will watch tomorrow.
In any case, we look forward to hearing your voice.
Hi S and W and welcome to the forum. I share many of your misgivings about Kent Hovind. I watched his videos a lot during my teenage years and heard him speak in person, so I think he had more effect on the development of my YEC-or-nothing ideas than even Ken Ham. But looking back on it now I cringe at seeing how disingenuous he is (emotional appeals, questioning others’ faith) and how many conspiracy theories he apparently subscribes to. He’s a good example of how devotion to pseudoscience rarely comes in just one form.
On the other hand, I admire some of his zeal. At the end of his tapes he had a personal segment where he would lead the viewer through a prayer for salvation, and he struck me as sincere. Not many national speakers came within half an hour of my podunk hometown, and it sounds like he’s given up a lot of financial stability in doing all of that traveling. He also refused to copyright his materials because he was okay with losing money if they benefited people. It’s impossible for us to know the state of his heart or his true motivations – probably they’re complex, like my own – but I still don’t get the impression that he’s trying to fleece people.
Yep, that was me. And not just a Christian adult, but an “our kind of Christian” adult. He was against all the same “evil” political causes that we also opposed, and used some of the same buzzwords. Once my dad made some kind of comment about how he didn’t always like how Hovind spoke about those he disagreed with, and I was shocked. I think in my mind, if you were “one of us” you could do no wrong – certainly a dangerous view and one I’ve had to deconstruct.
Thankfully, I did not have to endure a diet of Hovind. His derisiveness was repulsive the first time I saw him – I think I would have been repulsed by it even if I had still been a YEC at that point. Then I learned about his scofflaw attitude and his refusal to pay his taxes, in defiance not only of government, but multiple scriptures, too.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if the tax thing was a bridge too far for many of the more conservative Christians who otherwise would have followed him. I believe he is/was into “sovereign citizen” nonsense too. Since I discovered him as a young teen and was raised in something of a bubble, I didn’t quite have the critical thinking experience to ask myself whether listening to him was a good idea – or maybe I just didn’t want to use it. By the time he was in prison my family was more into AIG anyway.
You can really tell that Kent is practiced in the 100% defense of his illogical position and there is nothing that can prove him wrong - in his mind. I especially like the pivot from Denis’ point that nobody but the evangelical Christians believe in evolution and no-one questions the paleontological record. Kent says that the minority is always right in the Bible…
@DOL is by far my favorite dentist.
Good job Denis, very articulate and well reasoned. I struggle to think what one can even say in response to Kent’s very simplistic “I can see what it says right here, heretic” mantra (not verbatim but close). There is a stubborn blockade in his completely closed and well-insulated mind. I think only God can get through to him at this point. I just wish he wouldn’t bring others astray with him.
I watched most of Kent’s stuff before he went into jail. His best moment:
The evolution believing atheist cannot find God for the same reason a thief cannot find a policeman.
– Kent Hovind
So…I’m guessing this is irony? 
Sure 
I debated Hovind once on the same show (A lot of people did), but Denis did one of the best jobs. I just got depressed at his dishonesty. He kept showing a slide with a quote from Romans, “death came to all” and when I pointed out that the next word was “men” he ignored it and kept insisting no animal died before the fall. Denis did a great job, as usual.
Hovind basically begins from one Bible verse and then tries to force science to be coherent with it. It is the most dishonest thing a man can do. I realised yesterday how many people still are in views similar to Hovind by seeing his huge number of subscribers.
According to them, it seems that scientists made a huge plot to “destroy” God.
How can you imagine that earth is 6000 years old and that the 6 days were literal ? It is an insult to all cosmology, astrophysics, paleontology… When he said Jesus confirmed the literal view of Genesis I would reply : "Imagine Jesus talking to Apostles about Big Bang, dinosaurs, permian mass extinction, mammooths, neanderthals and so on… Who could understand these terms with 2000 years ago Palestine science ? 
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