Kent Hovind Doesn't Check His "Facts"

This is the last post about Kent Hovind, I swear. After doing a bit more research on the guy, I've found a little something I just had to share about how severely this man distorts science and uses unsubstantiated claims for evidence.

In late 1999, New Mexicans for Science and Reason (NMSR) pulled a hilarious April Fool's prank. They created a fake fossil of a hominid being eaten by an Allosaurus (pictured below). They then photographed the "discovery" of the fossils and posted them on a website calling it "Onyate Man" along with a fictional story about the discoverer's attempt to reveal the find to the public while avoiding a world-wide consipiracy involving scientists and several governments determined to cover it all up. (You can see the original prank here and NMSR's explanation here)


A month later, Kent Hovind told an audience in Philadelphia, PA "to study convincing new evidence of humans living with dinosaurs. Hovind's evidence, a web site at http://www.darwindisproved.com/Archive.html [no longer valid. It has been moved to here], turned out to be the annual NMSR April Fool's prank" (Source).

Upon learning of their success, NMSR awarded Hovind with the 2000 P.T. Barnum "One Born Every Minute" Award at their Best and Worst of 1999 Awards. In response to NMSR's announcement letter, Hovind challenged NMSR scientists to a public debate. The NMSR made a counter-proposal offering to take part in a written debate with 750-word essays for each point and counter-point. Hovind repeatedly refused with the lame excuse of not having enough time and kept pushing for an oral debate. (You can see the dialogue here)

What's the matter Hovind? Afraid to make an argument in writing that people have time to research and refute? It's a lot easier to lie when people don't have ready access to information, isn't it? This is not the first time Hovind has shown a dislike for writing out his "theories." He's even prevented his thesis from being publicly available. (Find out why this is a problem here)

All in all, this just shows how unscientific Hovind's methods are. He finds any scrap of evidence, no matter how dubious it is or how much he has to distort it, and presents it as evidence for the Bible, which he never validates in the first place. Of course, silly things like "rules" don't apply to Hovind, and that's why he didn't pay his taxes.

On a final note, I kind of worry whether or not NMSR did a disservice by creating this prank, since it has shown up as "evidence" from Creationist groups as late as 2004.