Sunday, May 13, 2007

Dr. Dino Goes to Jail

Dinosaur Adventure Land Theme Park in Florida is designed to teach kids of all ages how people lived concurrently with the dinos. Ha! The whole concept - and the theme park - seems so outlandish that I planned to visit there for my book. I just learned from the NCSE news page, though, that the guy who runs it, the fairly well-known (as far as young earth creationists go) "Dr. Dino" Kent Hovind, was recently sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for 58 tax offense charges including various legal breaches related to taxes and employees. He owes the IRS over $600,000 in restitution to the IRS. According to Wikipedia, the IRS shows the theme park earned over $5 million from 1999 to March 2004. Apparently the Hovinds tried to renounce their US citizenship and their social security numbers, claiming instead to become "a natural citizen of 'America' and a natural sojourner" and claiming not to live in the state of Florida but in "the State of Florida Body-Politic Corporation." The US government didn't buy it.

7 comments:

Sus said...

hmm...just visited the website and looks like they've stopped updating it.

Just out of curiousity, are you saying the "whole concept - and the theme park - seems so outlandish..." because no where in the bible (at least from what I've read!) does it indicate man co-existed with the big fella's or is it outlandish to you to think that man could of co-existed with 'em?

Unknown said...

It's outlandish that man coexisted with the dinosaurs, and that people believe such things. The belief, along with young earth creation in general (which says the earth is less than 10,000 years old or so) just flies completely in the face of all scientific geological evidence. Isotope dating of rock is very scientifically solid as a method to date rock - and it consistently ages the oldest rock as billions of years old. Also dino fossils can be dated to the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, not contemporaneous with any form of human or pre-human Hominid.

Sus said...

oh...really? hmm...well I must admit that I thought there had been evidence of early man having existed around the same time as the dear ole' T-Rex. But then I did go to hs school here in NM and about the only science course I took in college was geography!

Melody S. said...

Wendee,
This isn't the same people building Dinosaur City in New Caney is it? I hope not. I think that park, from what I've heard, will be more outdoor museum than theme park. I hope it's not the same people....

Unknown said...

I actually haven't heard of that Dinosaur City in New Caney. I'll have to look into that... I doubt it's the same people though. Theer are plenty of young earth creationists around here!

Stacy said...

The person 'creating' the "Dinosaur City" in Texas is NOT the same as "Dr. Dino".

The 'creator' of the (hopefully) soon-to-happen Texas park is known as "Dino" Don. His name is Donald Lessem, and he's from Pennsylvania.

The park also won't be known as "Dinosaur City" as I now understand it. The latest name for the park is EarthQuest Adventures.

http://www.sixflagshouston.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1818&start=0

Unknown said...
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