Kent Hovind

Kent E. Hovind (born January 15, 1953) is an American Christian fundamentalist evangelist and tax protester.

He is a controversial figure in the Young Earth creationist movement whose ministry focuses on denial of scientific theories in the fields of biology (evolution and abiogenesis), geophysics, and cosmology in favor of a literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative found in the Bible.

Hovind's views, which combine elements of creation science and conspiracy theory, are dismissed by the scientific community as fringe theory and pseudo-scholarship.

He is also controversial within the Young Earth Creationist movement; Answers in Genesis openly criticized him for continued use of discredited arguments abandoned by others in the movement.

In 1971, he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois.

He entered Illinois Central College and then transferred to the unaccredited Midwestern Baptist College in 1972, attaining a Bachelor of Religious Education in 1974.

He married his wife Jo in 1973 and they had three children between 1977 and 1979.

Between 1975 and 1988, Hovind served as an assistant pastor and teacher at three private Baptist schools, including one he started.

In 1988 and 1991 respectively, Hovind received a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from (also unaccredited) Patriot University, then in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Patriot University is a diploma mill.

Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Hovind presents his education and credentials.

All his known degrees are from unaccredited institutions, and he has no training in paleontology.

Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation–evolution controversy, wrote that Hovind's lack of training makes academic discussion impossible and has said that his understanding of historical and scientific research is deficient.

Karen Bartelt, an organic chemistry professor who debated Hovind, examined Hovind's dissertation and found it is incomplete, contains numerous spelling errors, lacks references, shows flawed reasoning, and states that it does not present any original research.

Hovind established Creation Science Evangelism (CSE) in 1989 and Dinosaur Adventure Land in 2001 in Pensacola, Florida.

He frequently spoke on Young Earth creationism in schools, churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts.

In 1989, the family moved to Pensacola, Florida, where Jo attended (then unaccredited) Pensacola Christian College and earned a bachelor's degree in music and master's degrees in music and sacred music.

Hovind established Creation Science Evangelism in 1989 to evangelize and teach creationism.

In 1998, Hovind created his Dr. Dino web site and began producing articles and selling video tapes, books, and fossil replicas.

In 1999, his son Eric Hovind began traveling to present his arguments and seminars.

In May 1999, his son Eric joined Creation Science Evangelism as a speaker, and his daughter Marlissa began training to become Hovind's secretary.

In 2001 Hovind started Dinosaur Adventure Land, a young Earth creationist theme park located behind Hovind's home in Pensacola.

With the slogan, "Where Dinosaurs and the Bible meet!", the facility on roughly 7 acre had an indoor "Science Center" and an outdoor space with a variety of simple dinosaur-themed rides and activities, each of which was tied to some religious message.

That year, CSE merged with Faith Baptist Fellowship of Hawthorne, Florida, beginning a relationship that lasted until 2002.

In 2003, with the aid of Glenn Stoll (a promoter of tax-avoidance schemes), Hovind set up a series of entities starting with "an unincorporated association of pure trust" on May 13, under which a corporation sole and several ministerial trusts were established starting on May 23.

CSE properties were conveyed to the trusts which operated under business licenses from the "Kingdom of Heaven".

Hovind is associated with the Unregistered Baptist Fellowship (UBF), a loosely affiliated group of roughly 100 churches which share a "theology of Christian resistance" to civil governments.

Because the UBF would consider it an acknowledgement of government authority over the church, they reject the highly favorable 501(c)(3) status, which makes donations tax deductible and exempts them from income tax, but not FICA taxes or employee income tax withholding.

The UBF holds that governmental authority stops "at the threshold of the church", and Hovind has likened his ministry's status to that of the Vatican City State.

Prior to his incarceration, Hovind had numerous speaking engagements (around 700 in 2004 ) at churches, private schools, and other venues each year, in addition to hosting a daily internet radio talk show and establishing Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida.

When the federal government obtained a search warrant in 2004, an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) criminal investigator made the sworn statement that the organization did not have a business license and did not have tax-exempt status.

Hovind was convicted of 58 felony counts in November 2006 and sentenced to ten years in prison in January 2007; Eric Hovind took over Creation Science Evangelism.

His son Eric Hovind took over operation of CSE after Hovind began serving a ten-year prison sentence in January 2007 for federal convictions for failing to pay taxes, obstructing federal agents, and structuring cash transactions.

In September 2021, Hovind was convicted of domestic violence against his estranged wife.

At the age of 16, Hovind became a born-again Christian within the Independent Fundamental Baptist church.

In July 2007, God Quest Inc. was incorporated with Eric Hovind as president, and that November, God Quest Inc. filed in Florida to do business under the trade name Creation Science Evangelism.

In June 2008, Eric announced that the CSE website would incorporate the CSE blog and change format allowing for "only positive comments" about Hovind and CSE, and in late 2011, Creation Science Evangelism's DrDino.com website was redirected to CreationToday.org.

The new website announced "Creation Today is a ministry of God Quest, Inc."

with focus on "creation, apologetics and evangelism."

Kent and Jo divorced in 2016.