5% - Wow! I am tempted to call him on the 10,000/month slaughter rate, but since I have made some close calls lately, I won't count this officially. It would be nice if he would even once back up one of his bizarre claims, though.
Hovind: "When Pol Poc, the leader of the Kimer Rooge, took over Cambodia"
Lie #128. It was Pol Pot, and the Khmer Rouge. And let's not forget the other side of this coin, either - the oppressive regime of Norodom Sihanouk, who, while not as bloodthirsty as the Khmer Rouge turned out to be, effectively triggered their reign of terror by his own policies, just as the victors of World War 1 set the stage for World War 2 by their oppressive treatment of Germany after 1918.
Hovind: "When America pulled out of South Vietnam, a slaughter took place."
But it wasn't as big as the slaughter taking place beforehand, and now Vietnam turns out not to be the evil country we were all told to believe.
Here is Hovind's list of communist guidelines for revolution. Let's compare it with the activities of fundamentalist evangelicals, shall we?
1. Corrupt the young. Overall, the youth of our nation are losing regard for established values and integrity.
And the church, with the bloodlust of the old testament and the intolerance of the new is going to offer family values?
2. Break down the old moral virtues.
And replace them with ambiguous Biblical injunctions which, throughout history, anyone has been able to interpret in any way they chose.
3. Encourage civil disorder. Civil disorder is rampant.
And the talk of Armageddon just around he corner is, of course, not stirring up anyone.
4. Divide the people into hostile groups...
Such as religious denominations?
..and political persuasions
Such as communists vs. Hovind?
...many other hot issues, such as abortion, have stirred and divided the country.
Given that the Bible has nothing to say about abortion, and the Jewish religion (upon which Christianity is firmly based, although most Christians would rather forget this) has traditionally not considered a fetus a living thing until it is born and draws the first breath, where is the religious right's moral authority in this? The abortion issue has been entirely one-sided, fomented and stirred up by religious fundamentalists. If life is precious, why are they not lobbying against the death penalty? Why are they not lobbying to save the 40,000 children under 5 years old who die every day from starvation, neglect, and disease? Why is it just cute, young, American and white that is worth preserving?
5. Get the peoples minds off their government by focusing their attention on athletics.
Get feeble minds to quit even a pretense of thinking by presenting mindless platitudes about religion, and overwhelming them with evangelical creationist lies.
6. Gain control of all the media.
Religion is doing a fine job of this, and now creationists want to get into the schools to go after your children.
7. Destroy peoples faith in their leaders.
By telling them that their historical heroes were all racist evolutionists who slaughtered their so-called inferiors, as Hovind has just got through doing in this very chapter of his seminar? By telling them their sports heroes and role models are idiots, as Hovind does in this very list? By trashing the names of decent people like Margaret Sanger, who, like the good Samaritan, helped the downtrodden?
8. Cause the registration of all firearms. Do you know this is one of the communist plans to take control of the country? Register all firearms...Thats what Lenin called for, to disarm the people. Thats what Adolf Hitler wanted...Joseph Stalin wanted registration of all firearms...David Koresh was a gun collector and a tax evader.
There is a difference between tax evasion (which is illegal) and tax avoidance (which is legal). Hovind ought to know this - he is an expert on not paying taxes. Hovind doesn't need firearm registration - he is so busy firing off his mouth that what he needs is mouth registration. When he explains how firearm registration constitutes disarming the most violent nation on Earth, I'll listen.
Hovind: "Gun control is stupid! The solution is criminal control. Child control? Yes, but not gun control. School control, politician control? Yes!"
I'll let this idiocy stand uncommented, along with this next, which I shall call Lie #129:
Hovind: "The New World Order is going to have an army and we are already training them. A lot of policeman and servicemen are going to be in it, and they are going to have black uniforms, black helicopters, and black tanks."
I saw that movie - "Men in Black" - great comedy....
Hovind: "Our Constitution is being gradually whittled away from under us"
By the fundamentalists who want to overthrow the establishment clause and force their brand of religion down everyone's throat.
Hovind: "I am not for gun control. We ought to execute criminals for certain crimes."
And forget about that little commandment that says, "Thou shalt not kill." Whatever happened to Hovind's faith? What happened to prayer? Is Hovind so lacking confidence in his god that he needs a _gun_?
Hovind: "In 1776, a man by the name of Adam Weishaupt started a group called the Illuminati, the enlightened ones. Their symbol is on the back of our dollar bill...They say, Once we get the New World Order in place, and institute the all-seeing-eye on top which represents Lucifer, the light bearer will be in charge. Yes, the all-seeing-eye on your dollar bill represents Lucifer. They know that, and they fully intend for Lucifer to rule this world."
Lie #130. Lucifer does not in any way, shape, or form represent satan, as Hovind tries to imply here. The name 'Lucifer' appears only in Isaiah 14:12, where it makes it explicitly clear that the reference is to the morning star, since it specifically says, 'morning star'. Duhh! The Hebrew word for this is Helel, and the Greek word is Phosphoros. They all refer to the planet Venus. Oddly, there is another reference to 'morning star' in the Bible - it refers to Jesus, so if Lucifer could just as easily be the so-called son of god.
Hovind: "I believe that the builders of the Great Pyramids were either Noah and Shem who built it after the flood. Or maybe it was Adam and Enoch who built it before the flood, and it was the only structure to survive the flood."
What a mess of screwed up English that is! Hovind is entitled to his belief, but he has nothing other than belief to offer for this. There is no evidence to support this contention and every evidence against it.
Hovind: "The Great Pyramid is positioned perfectly, north, south, east, and west...We have no idea how they built it. We could not build it today."
Lie #131. Yes we do know how they built it as even a casual glance at any book on the pyramids will show. The pyramid is not perfectly oriented - it is off by over 5 degrees and the sides are out by about 8 inches from one another - therefore it is not the work of god (or space aliens). Yes we could build it today and build it even better than the Egyptians did. There is nothing mystical or magical about the pyramids. Any study of Egyptian history will show how the pyramids literally arose in sequence, from simple mastabas (slabs over graves in the ground) to small pyramids and finally the accomplishments of the Egyptians of Khufu's era, for whom the Great Pyramid was built.
Hovind: "The symbolism for Christianity is all through the building."
Lie #132. Where? Where is the crucifix? Where is the lamb? Where is the trinity? Where are the Biblical inscriptions? If it was not built for Khufu, why was his name (inscribed in the pyramid) found by Vyse and Perring in the 1837/8 archaeology season when they broke into a previously unexplored chamber? What was the meaning of the sarcophagus if it were not for the coffin of a pharaoh?
Hovind: "The sides of it have 144,000, smooth, polished limestone blocks. Ah, 144,000, that number is in the Bible."
Lie #133. Yes it is, and it doesn't include westerners, but you will find it nowhere on the pyramid - there are no smooth sides. Any guess as to how many polished blocks there were is just that - a guess.
Hovind: "Did you know that there is about 160 countries in the world right now?"
Lie #134. Try 'more than 185' - which was the 1997 membership of the UN.
Hovind: "Ten are going to get together for the European common market."
Lie #135. There were 15 members of the European economic Community by 1994 - the year before Hovind's seminar is dated, so he was lying in it and he knew it - either that or he was too stupid to check. There are about 13 other European nations who would like membership, but even if we count these (making 28) and deduct that number from 185 (sovereign nations), it leaves 157 - nowhere near Hovind's prophetic 153. Obviously he is completely wrong.
Hovind: "Satan is trying to muscle in and take over and he will not have a problem"
Lie #136 - there is no "Satan." The word, 'satan' actually translates as 'adversary' - it has nothing to do with a fallen angel, the Evil One, or Lucifer.
Hovind: "God looks at these conspiracies and laughs."
Given that in the Gospel according to Hovind, god created everything and knew beforehand how it was going to turn out, why wouldn't he? He has been responsible for everything all along.
Hovind: "The Great Pyramid is a neat subject to study. If you go up to the kings chamber you will notice an empty tomb with a red granite coffin. The coffin has the exact dimensions of the ark of the covenant."
Lie #137. Reckoning a cubit as between 17 and 21 inches, this translates to a rounded maximum of 53"x32"x32" for the ark. To the best of my knowledge, the internal dimensions of the sarcophagus are over six feet long, by just over two feet wide, by almost three feet deep.
Hovind: "The angle of the shaft leading down or the angle leading up is twenty-six degrees, nine minutes and seven seconds. It is noteworthy, that this is the exact angle from the pyramid to Bethlehem, right to the second."
Lie #138. My book gives 26 deg. 2 min. 30 sec., but either way, the Pyramid is on the outskirts of Cairo. The angle between Cairo and Bethlehem is closer to 19 degrees than to 26, if I recall my earlier calculation correctly.
Hovind: "The Great Pyramid is positioned on the latitude line and the longitude line, which happens to be the longest ones in the world above sea level.
Lie #139. I don't know which map Hovind looks at, but when I look at my map, the longitude line with the most land under it seems to be either something around 20 deg. East, or 50 degrees West. As far as latitude is concerned, the line covering the most land would have to be somewhere up in the 50 to 70 degree range. Nothing as far south as Cairo gets even close.
Hovind: "This is all part of the New World Order, which was a conspiracy started by Satan back in the garden of Eden. He wanted to rule the world."
Lie #140. He is already considered lord of this world! However, if you actually read Genesis and don't let Hovind do your thinking for you, all the serpent (not satan - a serpent) wanted to do was to educate Eve. The Church has been against women's liberation from the start!
Hovind: "...he will cause everyone to receive a mark in their right hand or in their forehead...The mark is going to be six-hundred three-score and six, 666."
Or in some versions of the Bible, 616.
Hovind: "In 1972, IBM Corporation developed the bar code where the computer can actually translate lines and spaces into zeros and ones, a binary language, and read it."
Lie #141. IBM did not develop this at all. On October 20, 1949, Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver filed a patent application titled "Classifying Apparatus and Method," which was designed to read a bar code pattern of four white lines on a dark background
Hovind: "If you look at the first two lines on the bar code, they are longer than the rest and are unmarked. The system does not tell you what these numbers are."
Lie #142. That's because they are not numbers, they are markers.
Hovind: "It just so happens that two skinny lines with a space in between them is the computer binary code for the number six."
Lie #143. There are two bar codes for a six - and they have nothing to do with computer binary codes as such - they relate only to the bar pattern. Here they are (and neither consists of two lines only):
0101111 1010000You will notice that the bar code on the right has ones where there are zeroes in the bar code on the left. The scanner reads the bar code from the center outwards, reading both to the left and the right. This is how it can read the bar code no matter which way up it is. This is why there are two codes - so the scanner can read it either way and verify the number. This is why there are two bars in the middle of the code - to tell the scanner where to begin. This is why there are two lines at either end of the code - to tell the scanner where to end. Hovind is heaping lie upon lie upon lie.
Hovind: "Why would they put a six at the beginning, middle and end? Why didnt they choose a two or a four? Its on every product. Check it out and see for yourself."
Obviously Hovind's brain power is severely limited (if it were not, he would not be a creationist), so let me help him out. The reason there are two lines with a white space in between is that the scanner reads not only the lines and spaces, but the width of the lines and spaces (how else would it read two or more consecutive ones or zeroes?). The two lines and space are to show the scanner where to begin and also what the width of a single line and space is, so it can tell when there are lines and spaces that are double, triple, or quadruple width.
Hovind: "The Bible says if you receive that mark and worship the beast, you are going to be in trouble. Read Revelation chapter 14 and you will see how they will be tormented and punished."
Ever wonder why the fundies take such a delight in contemplating the torments and punishments of the damned? They are sadists, that's why - they have no time for loving they neighbor.
Hovind: "In 1990, they begin putting little magnetic strips inside our paper bills. If you examine a five, a ten, or a twenty dollar bill while holding it up to the light, you will see the strip about one-inch in on the left side. This is to prevent counterfeiting, but there are other things that they can do with it. They can detect, roughly, how much money is in your pocket when you walk past sensors, based on that strip."
Lie #144. I am going to call this a lie until and unless Hovind offers proof for this.
Hovind: "A little microchip was developed to aid paralyzed people to walk. Plans were to inject this microchip in the muscles of paralyzed people and utilize a computer attached to their back to stimulate the muscles."
Lie #145. Until Hovind comes up with a reference, this is a lie, because I don't see how the chip is going to help the muscles. A computer with electrodes in the muscles, I can see some use for, but chips in the muscles? If the chip is there, why do they need a computer on their back?. Hovind makes no sense.
NOTE: Hovind is correct on this one. See French Paraplegic Walks from ABCNews.com.
Lie #146 - until and unless Hovind backs this preposterous claim with fact.
Hovind: "We are bankrupt, but they cannot really cash in and foreclose on the mortgage because too many people still have guns."
Yeah, right! Like the IRS never manages to get taxes from gun owners. Or creationist evangelists.
Hovind: "Thats why we have some senators and representatives in there saying, The second amendment is to protect your right to have guns so that you can go hunting. No, no, no!...The purpose of the second amendment, the right to bear arms, was so the citizens could protect themselves from their own government."
Darn! And I thought that was what the voting process was for.
Hovind: "Everybody ought to be allowed to have an M1 tank in their front yard if that's what they want to without having it registered."
!
Hovind: "There are too many people here that cannot be controlled; so get rid of them. Thats why AIDS was purposefully developed in a Maryland laboratory to wipe out population."
Lie #147. It has been traced to chimpanzees in Africa.
Hovind: "I know exactly what I am talking about."
Next time you see Hovind - ask him to produce the evidence, because although creationist freaks and weirdoes frequently talk up these conspiracies, they never ever produce documentation to back it up even though they always claim it is there.
The only time I have seen any so-called documentation on a conspiracy was over that insane "Clinton is assassinating people" garbage that was out on the Internet a while ago. I believe Pat Robertson and his ilk were selling videos on this topic - they'll do anything to fleece the sheep, won't they? Well, Barbara Mikkelson did an investigation into the names on the list and found out that the claims were nothing but bullshit. When I last looked at this, the web page was located here.
Hovind: "The Bible states in Hosea 4:6a, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..."
A better injunction to adhere to the principles of scientific investigation, I cannot offer.
Hovind: Paul Hoaglar, the head of the Nebraska Board of Education, a former Nebraska senator, said to Everette Silivans lawyer, Fundamentalist parents have no right to indoctrinate their children in their beliefs. We are preparing their children for the year 2000 and life in a global one-world society (New World Order, the same thing thats on the dollar bill), and those children will not fit in"
We have no idea what Hoaglar (if that's how his name is spelled - we can never tell with Hovind) actually said and what Hovind added since there are no quote marks and no references. This is from Hovind, who claims to be a scholar. How one world pulling together would be a bad thing - and something which god would not rejoice in, I cannot imagine.
Hovind: "Persecution has already begun against creationists in the public school system. It is shocking to see what is happening to many of our public school teachers and how they have lost their jobs because they were creationists."
Lie #148. Knowing Hovind, I have no problem calling this a lie - even if teachers have been fired (all we have is Hovind's word, which is as good as a lie), I am willing to bet it is because they were not doing the job they were contracted to do, or were proselytizing to kids in school.
Hovind: "Look what Kendrick Frazier, an Iowa professor said in the Fall 1983 issue of Skeptical Inquirer, The professor has the right to fail any student, no matter what his grades are, if the professor finds out he is a creationist."
Well all I can confirm about this is that there was an article about creationist pseudo-science in that issue. Since I do not have the issue, I cannot confirm what Frazier may or may not have said. The bottom line here is that Frazier is an author. He is not the judiciary. He is not a tribunal. He is not a legislator nor is he military, or police, or one of Hovind's men in black, so Hovind needs to explain how one man expressing an opinion constitutes persecution. If this is the case, then I want Hovind arrested for persecuting evolutionists.
Hovind: "It is time to become motivated!...What do you want to accomplish with your life? What is your driving force in life? Get a bigger house? Get a fancier car?"
Or a new air-conditioning system like Hovind did?
Hovind: "What drives me is helping to defeat evolution and helping Christians to have a renewed faith in Gods word. I think about it at night. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and make notes, Gotta make a slide on this, to show this fact."
Does this, or does this not, sound like an obsessive compulsive?
Hovind: "If America should become a communist country or a dictatorship, which we inevitably will unless a miracle happens in the very near future"
Lie #149. Well here we are four years on from his seminar and we are no closer to Hovind's prediction now than when he made it.
Continued in part J
Thanks to Buddika for this great work.
See Kent Hovind's reply to the lies
Kent Hovind's Homepage
email me (I am NOT Buddika.)