AGE OF THE EARTH

The first video of Kent Hovind’s Seminar Series, The Age of the Earth, is the opening gambit of a seven part, 17 hour video series.

Half of the material of this first 2 hour video is devoted to Bible quotes and Biblical literalism – classic Sunday morning preaching. If you are a Biblical literalist you will agree with most of Hovind’s theological argument. If you aren’t a Biblical Literalist you will be left unconvinced. One person’s theology is another’s mythology.

Hovind begins the core of his presentation with a discussion of philosophy. According to Hovind, all religions answer the big philosophical questions about the meaning of life. Hovind makes the startling claim that Evolution Theory is a religion and is therefore supposed to explain the meaning of life. Since Evolution Theory does not provide such an explanation Hovind was generous enough to provide one for us. “If Evolution is true you are nothing important. You’re just a piece of protoplasm washed up upon the beach and you’re not worth a thing” (6:52). Hovind never explains how Evolution Theory makes these value judgements.

Despite claiming Evolution Theory is a religion giving answers to the meaning of life, Hovind contradicts himself by arguing, “If Evolution is true how do we tell right from wrong? ….. If Evolution is true there is no way to tell” (~41:00). If Evolution is a religion it is strange it wouldn't explain these things. The implied statement is that only the Bible defines what is right or wrong. Perhaps Hovind is unaware that he himself has just declared there are no moral absolutes. If there were intrinsic moral absolutes existing somewhere in the present universe they should be definable by their very existence without needing to refer to a particular religious text.

Hovind tips his hat to the Patriot movement and conspiracy nuts by claiming Evolution Theory is part of a New World Order plan to enslave humanity. Hovind says that people who believe in Creation "don't make good slaves" and goes onto to quote the reference to a "Creator" from the Declaration of Independence. Hovind overlooked slavery is fully endorsed by the Bible including instructions that slaves are to obey their masters (Eph. 6:5). This Biblical endorsement inspired the Southern Baptist Convention to argue against the abolition of slavery in the United States. Kent Hovind is a Baptist.

There are only two worldviews according to Hovind. On one side is pure atheistic humanism and on the other is “Creationism”. When Hovind says “Creationism” he means his particular brand of Young Earth Creationism. Any other form of Creationism – even Theistic Evolution – is rarely mentioned. Later in the video Hovind acknowledges the existence of other Creationist positions like those claimed by Hugh Ross but only long enough to call them heretics.

Evolution Theory is apparently a lie started by Satan himself because, according to Hovind, Evolution Theory says humans will “become like gods”. This is then linked to the serpent (Satan?) in the Garden of Eden who said about eating from the Tree of Knowledge, “you will become like God ….” Hovind omits the part about becoming “like God” because of “knowing good and evil”. Regardless, because Hovind’s version of Evolution Theory and the words of the serpent (Satan?) are similar they are therefore connected. And there we have Hovind’s da Vinci Code cracked. Despite claiming that Evolution Theory says humans are on a path to be God-like, Hovind contradicts himself later in the same video by suggesting that children misbehave in school because they have been taught they “are nothing but animals”.

Statistics apparently show teaching Evolution Theory and lack of official school prayer is causing the collapse of American society. This is despite the USA being one of the most religious Western countries, the spiritual home of the televangelism, and at least 45% of the population are Young Earth Creationists. The error Hovind makes is confusing correlation with causation. Just because a statistical trend follows an event (say, removing compulsory school prayer) does not mean the school prayer (or lack of) is the cause. What Hovind would need to do would be to compare the United States to similar countries to see if there is a link between religiosity and social conditions. This was done in a paper published in the Journal of Religion and Society (Vol. 7, 2005). The conclusion of this study was there was not a positive correlation between religion and social conditions. One consistent observation was despite the United States high levels of religiosity it performed significantly poorly in many social measures.

We are treated to Hovind’s recollection of his meeting with an unnamed Professor on an airplane where Hovind single handed defeats a very distorted version of the Big Bang.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics is then tortured to the point of confessing to the sins of Evolution. The Second Law of Thermodynamics deals with the amount of work capable of being done in a system. Over time the available energy within a system decreases as all energy is eventually transformed to heat and lost. Hovind uses a layman’s summary, “Everything tends towards disorder” which is only usable if we recognise disorder and entropy are not always the same thing.

Then Hovind spins off the rails. He wrongly claims “everything tends towards disorder” outlaws evolution of complex organisms from simpler ones. As long as the overall system has increasing “disorder” local areas can decrease in “disorder”. Hovind mentions the overall universe is a closed system but then omits to mention this doesn’t outlaw localised increases in order or evolution in particular. If thermodynamics worked the way Hovind described then trees wouldn't grow from seeds and we would all still be single celled eggs in our mother's womb (somehow our mothers would have to have overcome Hovind's thermodynamics to be more than a single cell themselves).

A new concept is introduced into science; energy can only be used by an “intelligent force”. What then is the “intelligent force” controlling global weather patterns? We are also told adding energy is always destructive therefore it can not be claimed that Sun’s energy allows evolution to occur on Earth. Hovind claims the energy from the Sun can only be used by plants via chlorophyll. He overlooks that the Sun’s energy keeps the Earth from being a frozen snowball so everything indirectly uses the Sun’s energy in a creative way. Also overlooked is that humans directly use the Sun’s energy to make vitamin D.

"Were you there?" is now added to the scientific method. According to Hovind unless the observer is "there" then the event is beyond scientific investigation. No longer does science draw conclusions from available evidence, the scientist themself has to directly witness the event. Nobody can see the core of the Sun - now off limits to science. No one can see the core of the Earth - now off limits to science. No one can recreate ancient Rome exactly - now off limits to science. The "were you there" plays well to a lay audience but is abysmal science.

Why the Earth is not millions of years old

The second hour of Hovind's video attempts to present the case for a young Earth, that is, supporting a literal chronology of the Bible. What is amazing about the arguments presented by Hovind is how many are outright wrong (leap seconds), irrelevant (Saturn's rings), debunked by himself (polystrate fossils) or contradict his Young Earth position (Niagara Falls) All of Hovind's arguments rely on applying Uniformitarianism, that is, how something behaves now is how it has always behaved. For example, if Niagara Falls is moving 4 feet per year then it has always moved at that speed ..... for millions of years. And yet in Video #4 - Lies in the Textbooks, Hovind claims the application of Uniformitarianism is not valid and is linked to "the scoffers in the last days". There is no explanation for such a significant contradiction between the two videos.

This review will only deal with Hovind's Young Earth "proofs" briefly. Sometimes comments will be made to highlight a particular noteworthy argument made by Hovind. Additional information can be found by following the links included. It is interesting to note Hovind is aware significant rebuttals of his claims have existed for years. During the presentation he even quotes a critique written by Dave Matson in 1995 specifically dealing with Hovind's Young Earth Arguments

Population growth - claims human populations can only ever increase – also claims anyone who advocates population control or reduction is literally working for Satan.

Leap seconds mean the Earth is slowing - Every 18 months or so a leap second is added to official atomic time because of the accumulation of error between the rotation of the Earth and the official length of a day. Hovind makes a huge mistake by confusing the accumulation of error with the rate the Earth slows down.

Red giant to white dwarf – pointless argument that if Sirius went from red giant to white dwarf (Sirius is a binary star system containing a white dwarf) over a period of human observation, somehow this means the universe isn’t old.

Oldest Tree - begins by claiming the oldest tree is 4300 years old thereby supporting Biblical chronology. Then changes his mind and admits there are trees much older which would contradict his Biblical chronology. Tries to cover his tracks by claiming tree ring numbers can't be trusted thereby destroying the validity of his opening claim. Despite this, Hovind then repeated his claim the oldest tree is 4300 years old.

Niagara Falls - Niagara Falls first flowed at the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago when retreating glaciers first exposed the new river bed.. However, Hovind builds a strawman argument to suggest the Falls should have been around for millions of years and should have completed cutting back to Lake Erie. The known rate of cut-back supports real geology and contradicts Hovind's Biblical timeline. Not daunted by this Hovind just declares the first half of the cut back was done in Noah's flood. Of course, no evidence was offered to support this hyper-fast flow rate.

Polystrate fossils – opens with a false argument that layering in sedimentary rocks is the same as the layers referred to in the Geologic Column. Hovind claims a fossils cutting through any type of layer would take millions of years and then proceeds to debunk his own argument by describing a present day formation of polystrate fossils.

Fossils cutting through layers is claimed to disprove modern geology (1:33:15)	Five seconds later, while attempting to suggest rapid petrification somehow overturns geology, Hovind illustrates real world formation of fossils cutting through layers after the eruption of Mt St Helens in 1980.

High oil pressures - Hovind presents a slightly different version than other Young Earth Creationists. He claims there is enough pressure in some oil wells "to crack the rock in less than 10,000 years". The problem with this argument is it ignores material science. If a material is loaded beyond its fracture point it will break immediately. If the pressure in some oil fields were enough to break rocks it would break the surrounding rock immediately which, unsurprisingly, doesn't appear to be happening. The pressure or age of a particular oil field is irrelevant to the age of the Earth.

Mississippi delta too young - admits the delta has 30,000 years of deposit (no problem for mainstream geology) and invokes Noah's Flood to lay down 26,000 years of deposit in less than a year.

Great Barrier Reef - The Great Barrier Reef (which is a chain of reefs) is the largest by total area covered. Area is not a correlation of age. It must also be noted that coral reefs are colonies of living organisms which usually prefer shallow water and are susceptible to environmental hazards (storms, predators, disease, changing ocean levels). The age of any particular reef region or individual reef is not applicable to the overall age of the reef system or the Earth. Hovind's claim probably originates from a 1985 Answers in Genesis article How old is Australia's Great Barrier Reef?. Some years ago I emailed AIG asking for a more exact source of their data to which they replied they would provide to me "shortly" but no details were given.

Sedimentary Rock Erosion - claims no sedimentary rock can last more than a few million years because it would be eroded. Overlooks that sedimentary rocks are uplifted at different rates and over different time periods. Sedimentary rock won't erode until it is the highest exposed layer.

"Ripple Marks" - claims features like the Zagros Mountains are caused by Flood run-off (picture right). Reality is these particular mountains are caused by collision of continental plates.

Oldest Language is 6,000 years old - misrepresents the oldest writing is about 6,000 years old. If Hovind's Biblical chronology occurred the oldest writing should only date to the Tower of Babel (4,000 yo). References modern calendars (Jewish and Chinese) as proving a Young Earth but claims older calendars (Egyptian) which contradict his argument are wrong.

Viewers who are already Young Earth Creationists will likely be impressed with Hovind's theological arguments and folksy humor. People with some science knowledge, regardless of religious position, will find Hovind's material unimpressive and perhaps embarrassing for the Young Earth movement.