# I just watched a Kent Hovind video, and I now believe that the earth is 6,000 years old **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 16, 2009, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919 "2009-06-16T06:44:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/41 "2009-06-17T14:35:19Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > I’m not sure if you got the reference to tax accounting, but Hovind is in prison right now for tax fraud. No, I didn’t know that - thanks for pointing it out. Since I’d never heard of the guy, it’s not surprising I didn’t know he was in prison. Nice to have hair ruffled by a passing whoosh! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/42 "2009-06-17T14:53:51Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > Is there a name for this logical fallacy? There’s “linearization error”, but that doesn’t quite fit. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/43 "2009-06-17T15:20:43Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > There’s “linearization error”, but that doesn’t quite fit. You should try using a log scale. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/44 "2009-06-17T18:52:43Z")
Kent Hovind strikes me as the type who when having problems completing a jigsaw, cuts off the connecting bits, to make things a bit easier. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/45 "2009-06-17T19:47:03Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > Kent Hovind strikes me as the type who when having problems completing a jigsaw, cuts off the connecting bits, to make things a bit easier. Or just putting it up in its box and letting God handle the situation. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/46 "2009-06-17T20:59:12Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > Is there a name for this logical fallacy? Could be hasty generalisation. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/47 "2009-06-17T21:14:31Z")
Not just things like this. Look at how many idiots were using a couple of years of stock market increases, or worse, housing price increases, to extrapolate all kind of idiotic projections of value in future years. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/48 "2009-06-17T21:27:17Z")
Isn’t the current prevailing theory for the moon’s origin still the “giant impact” collision/capture hypothesis? In which case Hovind is right, after a fashion - there was a point at which the moon was within Earth’s atmosphere. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/49 "2009-06-17T21:37:12Z")
Most of the Fundie-Americans I know are actually come to regard Hovind as an unreliable nutjob. Unfortunately Ben Stein’s _Expelled_ is to them what Hovind used to be. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/50 "2009-06-17T22:42:05Z")
I once read in one of Jack Chick’s comic books that the fact Neil Armstrong’s foot only sank an inch or two into the Lunar surface, combined with the known rate at which the Lunar surface accumulates dust (from micrometeors precipitated from space), proves it’s a **young** Moon! Apparently Chick has never noticed that when you walk on a beach, your foot only sinks an inch or two into the sand, but that doesn’t prove the sand is only an inch or two deep. At least Hovind isn’t quite **that** retarded. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/51 "2009-06-17T23:40:02Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I once read in one of Jack Chick’s comic books that the fact Neil Armstrong’s foot only sank an inch or two into the Lunar surface, combined with the known rate at which the Lunar surface accumulates dust (from micrometeors precipitated from space), proves it’s a **young** Moon! > > Apparently Chick has never noticed that when you walk on a beach, your foot only sinks an inch or two into the sand, but that doesn’t prove the sand is only an inch or two deep. > > At least Hovind isn’t quite **that** retarded. Jack Chick sources a fair deal of his creationist ‘facts’ straight from Hovind. Hovind has used the moon dust argument too… So maybe he _is_ that retarded. ---
**Author:** ![emcee2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emcee2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emcee2k)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/52 "2009-06-18T01:26:30Z")
> [@straggler](#): > > I just watched a Kent Hovind video, and I now believe that the earth is 6,000 years old > > Well, not really. Damn bait and switch. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/53 "2009-06-18T03:01:57Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > Is there a name for this logical fallacy? [Unwarranted extrapolation](http://www.propagandacritic.com/articles/lf.extrapolation.html) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/54 "2009-06-18T16:53:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Washington, D.C. > 29 August 1922 > Dear Professor Curtiss: > > May it not suffice for me to say in reply to your letter of August 25th, that, of course, like every other man of intelligence and education, I do believe in organic evolution. It surprises me that at this late date such questions should still be raised. > > Sincerely yours, > > Woodrow Wilson It’s taking a **lot** longer than we thought . . . ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919/55 "2009-06-18T17:18:35Z")
> [@straggler](#): > > Well, not really. > > Would be interested in hearing some rebuttals on these two points. > > Thanks. It’s a favorite of young-earthers to extrapolate from current processes an age of the earth inconsistent with scientific fact. I’ve found the easiest rebuttal is to simply point out that that must mean that particular avenue (salinity of the ocean, e.g… etc etc) must not be a good way to estimate the age of the earth. This is particularly effective if you have lined up a number of their similarly bogus calculations, all of which yield younger ages than the correct one…their problem is that the ages which their various methods yield are also entirely inconsistent with each other. If it were the case that their various extrapolations all agreed with one another, they could make an argument that science is wrong. But since they all disagree with one another by orders of magnitude, it’s just easier to point out that the methods must not be useful ones for determining the age of the earth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-a-kent-hovind-video-and-i-now-believe-that-the-earth-is-6-000-years-old/499919.md?page=2)