Creation Science Evangelism

A:    Every once in a while someone will ask me the question, "Where did you get your degree?" There are many web sites that attack me and often publish false information about me and/or my degree. While I am not the least bit ashamed of my education, I have learned by experience that some are asking the question because they have come to the point where they cannot attack the message I bring against evolution so they wish to attack me personally instead. This is called an ad hominem argument. They mistakenly think that by belittling the man they have answered his points and won the debate. When the opponent in a debate begins using ad hominem attacks, it is an obvious signal to all that they are losing the debate on facts and must resort to other means to try to save face or divert attention. It is also interesting to watch how the evolutionists will spend much time and effort scrutinizing a subject like my degree or credentials yet won?t spend two seconds scrutinizing how ridiculous the entire evolution theory is! They truly strain at a gnat and swallow a camel as Jesus said in Matthew 23:24. Two misguided individuals are even writing to every church on my itinerary trying to get the pastor to cancel my meeting! No meetings have been canceled, but several pastors have called me to have a good laugh over these letters. It is obvious that they are unable to get a crowd to voluntarily listen to them preach the evolution religion so they spend time attacking creationists.

Back to the degree question. I took advanced math and science classes at East Peoria High School graduating in 1971. I earned my first 60 (+ or -) credit hours majoring in math and science at Illinois Central College in East Peoria, Illinois. I then transferred to Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan where I double majored in education and Bible and graduated in 1974. (I took 18-20 hours each semester plus summer school to graduate in three years.) While I taught math and science in Christian schools for the next 15 years, I took courses at several Bible colleges in my spare time. I taught for 3 ½ years in Pekin, Illinois, 3 ½ years in Boubonais, Illinois, (I transferred at semester break to fill a need in Bourbonais), 5 years in Longview, Texas, 3 years in Fairfield, California and 1 year in Pensacola, Florida. I finished my Masters (1988) and Doctorate (1991) degrees in education from Patriot University.

Patriot University www.patriotuniversity.com is a Christian university in Colorado Springs that offers an external studies program for people involved in full time ministries. Patriot University (established 1980) is an extension of Hilltop Baptist Church and offered a Ph.D. in education. I spent many years working on my degree and learned a lot - as anyone who has watched my debates with evolutionists or seminar series will testify. Long after I graduated, Patriot relocated its extension division offices to College Heights Baptist Church in Alamosa, CO where it continues to thrive today. Patriot now offers a Doctor of Ministry degree rather than a Ph.D. in education because the State of Colorado asked them to make the change to emphasize the religious nature of their institution. Some ill informed scoffers have even circulated a picture of the church parsonage next to the church (which has the same address) and claimed this is where Patriot is now located. I don?t understand their twisted logic but, evidently, they think this somehow discredits me.

Patriot allows students to give offerings to the school instead of a regular tuition payment. Some scoffers have laughed at this idea; yet, they don?t seem to realize this is God?s method and they also forget how many thousands have gone through secular schools without using any of their own money via grants, scholarships or their parents? savings.

Some have ridiculed the size of the school. It would be interesting to see the look on the scoffer?s face if they knew the size of the schools many of our early presidents, congressmen, and military leaders graduated from. If Harvard offers a Ph.D. degree program with only three or four students (this happens at many schools, sometimes with only one student), does the small number automatically mean they are not "earning their degree" or that they are attending a "diploma mill" school? Of course not! Hundreds of colleges and universities offer classes by correspondence. There is nothing wrong with this. I worked very hard for my degrees. I don?t know if others do or not. Patriot has about 25 graduates each year, three to five of which are getting doctorate degrees.

My 20-year study of the creation evolutionism subject led me to start Creation Science Evangelism in 1991. I now speak over 700 times each year on the subject. I have had more than 60 debates and have been a guest on over 4000 radio and television talk shows. My itinerary is available from my office or on my web site, and any evolutionist interested in a public debate is welcome to contact me to arrange a time while I am in their area to be held at a place of their choosing. See my web site for details. Since some seem to think I don?t have a "legitimate degree," they can call me Kent, Mr. Hovind or even "hey you," if it will make them feel better. Since they don?t think I am "properly educated," it should be easy for them to demonstrate how wrong I am and how much evidence there is for evolution. I should be a pushover, but I am willing to debate them anyway and run the risk of publicly embarrassing myself. BTW, we have now upped our offer to $250,000 for evidence for evolution.

If you would like the names of scientists who support the young earth creationist position you may want to contact the Institute for Creation Research at (619) 448-0900 or www.icr.org. They can supply you with a list. I only claim to have many years of experience in studying the subject and the common sense to know that the universe is too complex to have happened without an incredibly smart designer (whom I happen to know personally as my savior). By the way, Darwin?s only degree was in theology; yet, he is often called a great scientist in textbooks today. Who and what determines who gets to be called a "scientist" and why don?t these scoffers put the same effort into correcting textbooks that call "Reverend" Darwin a scientist?

As Henry Morris has pointed out, "It is worth noting that almost none of the leaders of this evolutionary revival had been trained as scientists in the modern sense. None were educated as physicists or chemists or biologists or geologists or astronomers or other "natural" scientists. As already noted, Charles Darwin himself was an apostate divinity student whose only degree was in theology. Charles Lyell was a lawyer; William Smith a surveyor, James Hutton an agriculturalist, John Playfair a mathematician, and Robert Chambers a journalist. Alfred Russell Wallace had little formal education of any kind, with only a brief apprenticeship in surveying. Thomas Huxley had an indifferent education in medicine. Herbert Spencer received practically no formal education except some practical experience in railroad engineering. Thomas Malthus was a theologian and economist, while Erasmus Darwin was a medical doctor and poet. Of all the chief contributors to the revival of evolutionism commonly associated with Charles Darwin, only Jean Lamarck in France and Ernst Haeckel in Germany seemed to have had a bona fide education in the branch of evolutionary "science" that they pursued, and they had their own particular anti-Christian agendas to promote." The Long War Against God, ch.4. Haeckel and Lamarck pushed wildly wrong ideas to support evolution.