#592: Charles Creager jr.

Charles Creager has a bachelor of science degree from BobJones University and is thus a well-qualified creation scientist. His main claim to fame is his publication in the first volume of the Answers Research Journal (the house journal of Answers in Genesis) titled “Mars, a Testament to Catastrophe”. In this delightful article Creager claims to present evidence that Mars had a global flood as well. (Come on: it wouldn’t be consistent with the Bible if God only flooded the humans and not the Martians, would it?) He presents no new data, but insanely twists and tortures existing data from Mars rover missions (see this one) to suit his results. The scholarly references in the article are to press releases and only the pictures on NASA’s website.

Creager doesn’t seem to have contributed much else to science – though he runs his own creationist website, the Genesis Mission and had a paper “Entropy and Applied Energy” published in Creation Research Society Quarterly in 2012 – but the aforementioned paper is alone sufficient to earn him an honored place in our Encyclopedia.

Diagnosis: A rather cute attempt at “we want to do science too” without having the faintest idea what science is.

#578: Harold G. Coffin

Harold G. Coffin is a palaentologist and creationist (and signatory to the CMI list of living scientists who accept the Biblical Accountof Creation). He has some publications in regular journals, none of which support creationism, but has also written a slew of creationist articles for creationist journals, for instance on how the origin of coal may support a Catastrophic Flood theory. The argument consists pretty much of identifying a potentially unanswered question in modern geology and inferring from this that Flood geology must be better. His creationist ad hoc interpretation of polystrate fossils has not been accepted by mainstream scientists either, to put it mildly, though Conservapedia is apparently impressed.

Coffin witnessed during the McLean vs. Arkansas Board ofEducation trial, where – among other things – he admitted that were it not for the Bible he would have believed that the earth was very old, which is (though creationists may deny it) a straightforward admission of how much creationism has to do with science (also here).

Diagnosis: One of a frighteningly huge number of influential figures in the fight against reason, Coffin is neither the most aggressive nor the loudest. That doesn’t entail that he is not dangerous, however.

196: Marie Jon

From her own biographical info: “Marie Jon is a political/religious analyst-based writer and founder of www.DrawingClose.org and www.PeoplePoliticallyRight.com — sister websites to RenewAmerica. Marie extends her hand of welcome; visit DrawingClose and receive your free gift of salvation by taking an online Bible study.” That sets the tone.

Her column can be found here. In her column, Marie Jon offers marriage advice and advice on love and women’s interests, as well as general commentaries on the development of society (she is a huge fan of Rush Limbaugh), all against a background of firm Biblical values. She accuses Obama of introducing bigotry, racism and Marxism dishonestly disguised as Christianity (huh?) and blames him for the BP oil spill – at least accuses him for having a hidden agenda for being so slow to act, (as opposed to how Bush acted responsibly and immediately after Katrina!). Oh, and then of course there is the healthcare/death panel stuff. A common thread through her columns is the extreme paranoia for something she calls “social justice”, but which she never really seems to quite grasp. Fortunately, her main strategy in her fight against communism is … to pray.

She is also a firm young earth creationist, and complains that modern genetics pay too little attention to our last known common ancestor, Noah. She even bought into the Bob Cornuke story (here and here).

Still, it is her advice on love and relationship that has garnered the most attention – in particular her well-founded claim that modern feminism is founded on occultism, demonic spiritualism and necromancy. Yup – pro-choice advocates, women's rights movements and feminist movements are all satanic. Which, to Marie Jon, is obviously true insofar as they seek to violate God’s natural law set down in the Garden of Eden. You can figure out her relationship advice from there.

Diagnosis: Irrevocably insane and moronic godbotter who is unable to see that her fire and brimstone fundamentalism and godbottery sits poorly with the fluffy, rosy, children and laughter perspective on the world she attempts to deploy. Her impact is unknown, but probably not too extensive.

195: Robert Bowie Johnson jr.

Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr. may be most famous for his self-published book “Sowing Atheism: The National Academy of Sciences' Sinister Scheme to Teach Our Children They're Descended from Reptiles”, which was endorsed by Don McLeroy, the former chairman of the Texas Board of Education. As you’d expect, this book contains gems like “What kind of monster parents teach their children that they're descended from rodents and reptiles?” and “The hierarchy of the NAS has stolen true science; they are sacrificing our children to their atheism, and at the same time, destroying our children's faith in God.” The book is rather thin on evidence and reason, but then Bob Johnson doesn’t really care for such atheist tricks like ‘sanity’.

He has also written ‘Noah in Ancient Greek Art’ (read that title a second time). Yes, it is a book detailing Noah's role in Greek art as a known historical figure. Yes, that Noah. The Greeks knew the stuff: Noah, Cain & Abel, Eden, and so on – although it has been covered up by an atheist conspiracy. To “shock the Darwinists out of their denial of the overwhelming evidence in Greek art for the reality of Genesis events”, Johnson urges Creationists to “refer to evolutionists as what they imagine they are – Slime-Snake-Monkey-People, or “mutants” (more here and here).

Even the Institution of Creation Research has passed this crackpot by – but he was still found good enough for the Texas Board of Education.

Diagnosis: Ravingly insane crackpot and godbot. His impact is probably limited, but it has evidently and unnervingly shown up in some striking contexts.

#181: Kent Hovind

A.k.a. Dr. Dino

Kent Hovind needs no introduction, and plumbing the abyss of his cluelessness is probably not a hygienic enterprise, so we’ll restrict ourselves to the basics (and some examples). Hovind used to be the head of Creation Science Evangelism, a young earth creationist activist group. He also operated a small museum and amusement park known as "Dinosaur Adventure Land". In 2006, during the run-up to Hovind's trial for tax evasion, much of the park was shut down due to Hovind's refusal to secure a building permit. He was convicted on the tax evasion charges and is now serving a 10-year sentence.

Hovind has his doctorate in Christian Education from the diploma mill Patriot University. You can download his dissertation from this site (for instance); it was made public through Wikileaks and has become quite popular, so the server is often overloaded. It’s opening sentence, already established as a classic, is “Hello, my name is Kent Hovind”. In it he claims that “[i]n the twentieth century the major attack Satan has launched has been against the first eleven chapters of Genesis,” and goes on to display his deep understanding and erudite knowledge of modern biology by following it with “[c]hapter nine discusses the “best evidence” evolutionists have for evolution, that is, archeopteryx” and “I believe that dinosaurs are not only in the Bible, but the have lived with man all through his six thousand year history”, not to mention “The idea that evolutionists try to get across today is that there is continual upward progression. They claim that everything is getting better, improving, all by itself as if there is an inner-drive toward more perfection and order.” (More here, and here, and last but not least here)

Point is, Hovind views the manufactroversy between creation and evolution as an epic battle between God and his former chorus director, Satan. Evolution, you see, has been with us from the start: “When the people left the Tower of Babel, they took their false religion of evolution with them.” In fact, most opposition to Christendom concerns evolution: “the Islam religion accepts evolution very readily as a scientific fact because it fits so well with their teaching.”

Oh yes, Hovind believes the earth is 6000 years old, that the flood created Gran Canyon and that humans walked with dinosaurs. In fact Ken Ham, who shares these beliefs, has taken Hovind to task by creating a list of arguments against evolution a creationist should not use. They actually got into a dispute over that, since Hovind recognized several of his own trump arguments on Ham’s list. And that is Ken Ham. Of creation museum fame. When you are too ignorant of science for Ken Ham, then you are, well, rather ignorant. PZ Myers has attended one of his talks, and wasn’t particularly impressed.

So Hovind rejects the age of the earth, the field of astronomy, the entire field of geology, and has no trace of a clue about physics and/or radiometric dating. In fact, he is utterly ignorant of anything in science, has no time for evidence and is unmoved by facts. He doesn’t seem to mind, though. One famous example (among numberless) is his arguments against 'evolution' by trying to discredit the Big Bang, telling us that Big Bang violates the conservation of angular momentum because if everything came from a tiny spinning dot that blew up then everything would spin in the same direction; since some planets and moons in our solar system exhibit retrograde motion/rotation; this disproves the Big Bang, so evolution is impossible.

Other examples of his claims are that the Trail of Tears (1838) was a result of Darwin's Theory of Evolution (1859), that vaccinations are from Satan, that the New World Order was behind the Oklahoma bombings, that UFOs are “satanically owned and operated”, and that his commercial enterprises needn't file with the IRS in anyway or abide by legally issued warrants from same – even as a tax free organization in the unlikely event they qualify. With respect to this, Hovind claimed that as a minister of God everything he owns belongs to The Lord and he is not subject to paying taxes to the United States on the money he received for doing The Lord's Work (the judge in the case called his arguments “patently absurd”).

Hovind is well known for his "$250,000 Challenge", in which he states that he will pay $250,000 to anyone that can prove evolution. The conditions for “proof” are, well, Hovind’s own, and he has made it quite clear that it is logically impossible to meet his criteria (more here, and here).

An extremely fine resource on Hovind's studies can be found here. A nice, short summary can be found here. Note also this.

Kent has also lent his name to the Hovind, a unit of measurement which evaluates statements for kookery. Roughly, 0 is the score for a scientifically sound statement, 100 is for a lie that isn't even wrong. You can test your own Hovind here.

There are actually groups campaigning for Hovind’s release, such as this one (lead by one Adrienne Gilbert). Their main tactic seems to be praying, however, so they may be relatively harmless (here is another such call to prayer from the criminally insane Shelleytherepublican (Tristan Shuddery)).

Diagnosis: Hovind is a riot of insanity, ignorance, crackpottery, delusion, lunacy and idiocy. Thus, he has had rather far-reaching influence. His jail-time may have halted his career, and he seems to have grown even more unhinged during his time in prison. What happens when he is let out in 2015 will be interesting.

#180: Eric Hovind

Kent’s son, Eric Hovind is currently in charge of his dad's ministry. He is just as insane, and is equally inept at evaluating arguments and evidence as is father – so we get the same silly young earth creationist arguments, the same fallacies, stories about the age of the earth, Noah’s flood and so on that we all know and love. For only $ 9.95 per episode you can get his minute-long idiotic (but lavishly constructed) vignettes here.

In general, he seems to rely a little less on science-mangling and more on pure reading of the Bible, without having to deal with that pesky secularist conspiracy. He is, however, willing to sacrifice medicine if it turns out to have been influenced by the Theory of Evolution.

Here’s Eric Hovind on money: “It's not your money, it's God's”. You can grasp the pattern from that one, I assume. And from this one, and this.

A favorite argument (the flood and Grand Canyon): the current level of the Colorado River is several thousand feet lower than the peak elevations of the Grand Canyon, therefore the river must have flowed uphill to cut the canyon when it was formed.

More here.

Diagnosis: I’m sure his father is proud of him, but it is still unclear whether he possesses that persistently, powerful presence of fail that lead to his father’s success among the less rationally endowed.

#177: Bodie Hodge

Bodie Hodge is Ken Ham's son in law and in charge of the day to day operations at Kentucky’s Creation Museum. He also writes for Answers in Genesis and has a … uh … Kantian view of morality, defending the counterexamples in the stupidest D-grade intro student manner.

Here is a list of his major contributions to Answers in Genesis, including highbrow scientifically meticulous investigations into the age of Metuselah, why human lifespans were shorter after the flood, how Eve knew the apple was edible, and – of course – evolution. This one is a good example; he responds to an unbeliever who offers no reasons or substantiations at all. It's a one-way argument against a strawman, and Hodge still manages to loose the debate! In other words, Hodge is the kind of person who – as the saying goes – would lose a debate with a dead hamster (if truth and coherence are standards).

AiG is founded on the view that the Bible is the ultimate science textbook, and their writers are fond of trying to show how you can precisely derive things from the Bible. Hodge therefore uses the Bible to derive the sinking of the Atlantis as taking place somewhere between 1818 BC and 600 BC. Words fail.

Diagnosis: Yet another crank who couldn’t distinguish evidence from fantasy if his life depended on it, but Hodge is among the more blatant examples. Consequently, he seems to have a sound fanbase among those who find Ken Ham and Jason Lisle to be abstruse and esoteric.

#166: Ken Ham

Arguably the successor of Kent Hovind to the title of mackerel baron of the biblical creationist movement, Ken Ham is the well-known founder of Answers in Genesis (a pertinent description of which is found here, and also here). He originally hails from Australia (where all the kangaroos apparently floated after the Ark stranded in Turkey; see here). He is very diligent and shovels a lot of shit every day, completely delusional and utterly unable to distinguish fact from fantasy.

Also generally recognized as a human spambot that generates sentences with no regard for their truth or justification, their cogency with previous statements or any conceivable rules for good critical thinking, but in a completely predictable manner, such as in this case where the input cue is the term “atheist”. See this, and also this.

His favorite debate technique is a version of the Gish gallop known as the “Ham Hightail” which consists of jumping from point to point, ignoring all contrary evidence, and quoting the Bible whenever proof is required. Since the purpose is to retain the hold of those who already believe creationism is backed by science, if all else fails the hightail prescribes the “different worldviews” (i.e. atheist vs. moral) gambit.

Ken Ham and AIG also run the world-famous creation museum in Kentucky, a monument to ignorance, fundamentalism and denialism. The main purpose of the museum is to promote the idea that humans and dinosaurs coexisted peacefully before the Flood. The T Rex ate coconuts, and the reason animals ended up on different continents was that plate tectonics happened really, really fast after the flood. It “says quite a lot about Ham and his followers that they find a 4.5-billion-year-old Earth wildly implausible next to the notion of a tyrannosaur calmly grazing in a meadow.” Ken Ham and AiG seem to have failed to realize that the Flintstones is not a documentary. This is also pertinent, as is this.

Absolutely clueless and ignorant about science, Ham is also fond of dismissing any evidence on the grounds that the presenter is (purportedly) an atheist – a standard conspiracy theory trick, really.

He does, however, realize that Dembski’s old earth, intelligent design creationism is “bizarre", though not obviously for the right reasons.

Ham is also constantly complaining that scientists are unwilling to take him seriously. Go figure (He really, really doesn’t get it, though).

A couple of other examples: Ken Ham (feebly) claims that his Noah’s Ark claims are misrepresented.

Ken Ham on the Virginia Tech shootings (predictably).

Ken Ham on Tiktaalik.

Ken Ham applies double standards for Jesus.

Ken Ham fails to stay classy.

Ken Ham goes insane.

Oh, and Hitler.

And so on, and so forth. You get the gist.

Diagnosis: A clod, crackpot and (unintentional) con artist; seriously deluded and influential in the manner of Kent Hovind; Ken Ham is perhaps the leading advocate of traditional creationism and naïve biblical literalism. A threat to reason, sanity, intelligence and rationality everywhere.

#148: Scott Gillis

I didn’t quite remember who Scott Gillis was, so I had to Google him. First hit was a chiropractor in Ohio – and that might qualify on its own. However, this seems to be the right guy.

Scott Gillis is one of the culprits at the international organization/website "creation.com" (along with such impressive names as Jonathan Sarfati, Skip Tilton, Jay Seegert, Michael Oard, Rob Carter and the utterly lunatic Gary Bates).

According to his bio Gillis “turned to” creationism after “a paleontologist demonstrated to him how scientific evidence actually makes more sense when interpreted within the clear context of the Bible's account of history” (I don’t think “demonstrated” is the right word, and the level of confirmation bias needed to reach that conclusion suggests preexisting bias – besides, nothing suggests that Gillis knows the first thing about paleontology). At November 14 he will talk on “Creation: Impacting our Culture, + Dinosaurs & the Age of the Earth” in Covington, Georgia, and in December he will give “Dinosaurs & the Bible, + Why is There Death & Suffering?” in Oregon, if anyone is interested.

Associates with Ken Ham, and interprets Genesis literally, of course.

Diagnosis: Loon. Insignificant loon, perhaps, but still a loon. Ardent, self-righteous and unhinged.

#104: Tom DeRosa

Executive Director of the Creation Studies Institute (an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries), author of “Evolution’s Fatal Fruit” and self-proclaimed loon (well, he hasn’t literally said that, but he explains the fact that the earth is 4.7 billion years old and that this contradicts the Biblical 6000 years away by claiming that God created a 4.7 billion year old earth 6000 years ago, and that pretty much amounts to the same thing). His institute’s website is worth a visit.

Yes, he is a young earth creationist, trotting out the same old, same old – radiometric dating is unreliable, the Flood occurred 4000 years ago, Tyrannosaurus Rex was really a firebreathing dragon (behemoth of the old testament), evolution is solely responsible for all the ills of the 20th century (including, it seems, the travesties of religious fundamentalism – it is a little unclear). And these pieces of untarnished lunacy are typical creationist talking-points, remember. A typical debate is summed up here.

His notability does in part also stem from his own claim that he used to be an atheist who has since seen the light (See here. See also, well, more or less the rest of them, for example this guy). Apparently, DeRosa was the one who lead Pat Boone to creationism – I mean, Boone used to be an atheist, didn’t he? Apparently, Tom has a blog as well, where you can read about (among other things) his profound insight that creation vs. evolution is really the war between worldviews and neither is better than the other (yet his is, somehow, the best and correct one anyway).

Diagnosis: Total moron; impact is uncertain but he shouldn’t be underestimated.