In case you’ve missed the wonderful chaos that my YouTube channel has become, you’ve been missing out on quite the party as I have taken a turn from gaming and geekery on the YouTube front to a far more blasphemous anti-creationsim and a broader anti-anti-science strance, with a heavy focus on mockery of the LolCow that is Kent Hovind.
I’ve written about this before, in bits and pieces, but the summary is I’ve been doing live reaction streams to his own daily streams, providing comedic critique of both the inane garbage Kent spews every single day, but also him as a person, from his beyond pathetic boomerisms to his bigoted jokes and comments, to the blatant hypocrisy with which he lives his life. It’s really quite beautiful and if you haven’t seen a stream, you really should stop by and say hi.
Anyway, this has been going on for over a year now, and I’ve written some relevant pieces on the fact that Hovind is, for lack of a better term, a debate bro. He’s obsessed with “debating” everyone he can, but of course only on his particular conditions which are designed specifically for him to just ramble off his script — no organic conversation to be found here — and in September of 2025 I was approached by Kent’s tech guy, Joseph, for such, as a 3rd party told them that I was “open” to the idea of a debate. Of course I have my own stipulations for such, and one of those was that someone on Kent’s side (or Kent himself” explicitly reach out. That was done, with Joseph sending the initial email, and so I replied and began discussing what I would like to do — namely, more of an organic conversation about cosmology — which I was told sounded like a good idea, to paraphrase. The conversation had gone a few messages back and forth before I had a bit of a situation in my personal life happen that put playing pigeon chess with Kent Hovind on the back burner.
That was right at the beginning of October, and from that point until the other week I was in a situation where I really had no idea what would happen day by day. It was indeed stable for the most part, but I had no idea that would be the case in the moment. Naturally, normalcy in life is more important than planning some argument with an old science denying jerkass, only to possibly have to cancel due to the chaotic nature of life. Not that such matters to debate bro’s like Hovind — anything and everything is seen as being a chicken, because what’s more mature from a 73 year old man than to behave identical to a middle school bully.
Anyway, as mentioned Kent’s tech guy, Joseph, was the person I was having my exchange with, and the other day I got a new email from them, focusing on the fact that I did one particular stream (ignoring the dozens other I had done over the following 5 months) with some commentary; this being done in a style that’s apparently becoming a standard from the crew at Dinosaur Adventure Land to try to itemize their own objections to whatever content was produced against Kent. This, to me, appears to simply be them trying to strong-arm the opposition, given that Hovind has been flashing around pro-se filed lawsuit saying they can “add others” as they need to, because that’s totally not a SLAPP violation in many states, right?
Anyway, after spending a bit of time thinking about the nature of the email and its particular wording and structure, I responded as I felt fit, and as a matter of public record am making Joseph’s original email, and my reply, open to everyone so that Hovind et. all cannot claim falsehoods about my message, since as we all know evangelicals are some of the most prolific liars.
Anyway, here is the original email from Joseph:
Hello Chris!
I see that you avoided a debate for 6 months and then did a hit-piece. SMH...
I caught your recent stream, "No Holding Back On Kent," and I’ve got to be honest with you—it was a tough watch.
Not because the "critiques" were hard to hear, but because it was so clearly driven by emotion and personal hate rather than any actual facts.
At [00:06:07] and [00:11:19], you basically admitted you’d lost your "filter" and were just looking to say "horrible shit."
When you start a conversation from that place, your discernment goes right out the window. You’re not reporting; you’re venting.
I’d like to clear the air on a few things you got flat-out wrong:
The "Grifter" Claim: You called Kent a "perpetual grifter" [00:19:07] and the ministry a "vanity project."
Here’s the reality: Dinosaur Adventure Land is 100% free. No admission, no camping fees, and we even feed people for free. A grifter takes; we give. Using donations to pave a road so families don’t have to drive through mud isn’t a "vanity project"—it’s just taking care of our guests.
The "Epstein" Slurs: At [00:11:02], you went way over the line calling Kent "Hovind Epstein" and making claims about "pedophile friends."
That isn’t a critique; it’s a malicious lie. Kent has no record of anything like that. When you have to make up fake criminal charges to win an argument, you’ve already lost it.
The "Cult" Label: You called us a cult [00:09:47], but cults are about control and isolation.
We have an open-gate policy. Kent does "Open Mic" every week precisely so people like you can call in and challenge him live. That’s the opposite of how a cult works.
The "Censorship" Reality: You claimed he’s just a "moron" violating TOS [00:09:04].
Whether you like the content or not, there’s a massive, real-world debate about how these platforms target religious and conservative voices. Dismissing that as just "policy" is pretty short-sighted.
How you can be better
You mentioned at [00:13:00] that you’re a "greater force for good" than Kent. If that’s true, why rely on profanity and made-up stories? You’ve got the technical skills and the platform to be a real communicator, but the hate you showed in this video is just an anchor dragging you down. You’ll be a lot more effective when you start arguing from a place of truth instead of just "railing" because you’re in a bad mood.
Here is my challenge to you:
To prove we have absolutely nothing to hide, I am officially inviting you to Dinosaur Adventure Land. We will pick up the tab for everything—your flight, your transport, and your lodging. Come here. Bring your cameras. Talk to anyone you want. If we’re the "cult" or "grifters" you say we are, you’ll have all the footage you need to prove it. If you actually care about the truth like you say you do, you’ll take the trip and see it for yourself instead of shouting at a screen from a distance.
What do you say? Let’s see if your discernment holds up in person.
Joseph Shackelford
Creation Science Evangelism/
Genesis Baptist Church
and
Dr. Kent Hovind
Obviously, an email with an agenda as subtle as a brick through a window. After taking some time, I replied in detail, and again, am making my reply public as a matter of discourse. Not that most Hovindites seem to be able to read very well, if at all, but honesty is the best policity in such situations, no?
Greetings Joseph!
It would actually have been 5.36 months, using Kent's preferred decimal notation of time span measurement, since our last exchange when you sent the email I'm replying to now. That being addressed, this may surprise you but I do have a life, and that life does not revolve around Kent Hovind. I've had far more important things to focus on following the beginning of October. and given the then chaotic state of my day to day life which, thankfully, has only just recently stabilized in a way that I could properly schedule an event as you and Kent want so badly. I intended to get back to you a little sooner to provide an update as a courtesy, but I do tend to procrastinate. Don't take it personally, I put off a great many communications with far more important people in my life. There has been conversation which I feel you should recall from members of my community who have proposed variations of a "tag team" debate involving one of these members and myself in a "tag team" against you and Kent, which in the moment you and Kent seemed amicable to, if my memory is correct. More of that can be discussed in the near future, perhaps.
To say what I did was a "hit piece" is honestly a bit absurd -- it was a pretty typical stream, among the many that I do when I'm bored, but you likely selected that one to watch due to my intentionally attention grabbing title. While I don't like playing the "click-bait" game that social media demands, sometimes I do roll with a theme for the sake of it, and given at that time I was under a bit more stress than usual and felt that a little stream that was a little more intensely themed would be cathartic. It was for a few minutes, however, I quickly lost interest in playing up how I felt and went back to my normal commentary flow.
I have to question what you expect my streams to actually be about. I should remind you that Kent says the same things day in, day out, which have been addressed ad nauseam by a great many others years before I had ever even heard of the man, and I indeed have said my piece on in multiple other streams over the past year and a half.
Since it seems to not be obvious, my streams are about the human being that is Kent E Hovind, and are live reactions to either debates he has participated in or, more commonly, his current video productions, be they "Whack an Atheist" streams, Bible "study" sessions (I call them that very loosely) or just his Open Mic sessions that many times, mysteriously, don't have the link posted for people to call in. I'm sure that's just an oversight. Personal hatred, however, is quite silly to say -- Kent is too pathetic to truly hate, and is nothing more to those of us who follow him than a "LolCow" in common internet parlance. One that can be dangerous in some ways, but for the most part an internet personality to be milked for laughs.
Something I must point out as you follow your opening statements after saying my stream was a "tough watch" is the hypocrisy with which you attempt to criticize my commentary when Kent says the kinds of stuff he does, but we will get into that shortly.
With regards to me saying lost my "filter" and was just looking to say "horrible shit" it seems your understanding of English is as poor as I would expect for someone who was confident in a completely backwards correction of "you're" and "your" a few months back: The time-stamped sections, if you paid attention, refer to my having grown extremely tired of some of the more flagrant idiocy coming from Kent during that week, and I stressed that, in a predictive fashion, that one "would" (as in, could, or might) hear some "horrible shit" and not by any stretch that it was an explicit intent.
It seems nuance is a concept very lost to many a creationist, but that's fine: Perhaps Kent can assist you with that, and context clues, since he was an English teacher for 15 years.
Your comment about "discernment" and that I'm "not reporting" but "venting" also demonstrates a lack of comprehension with regards to the nature of the content you watched, as the subject for most of my streams is a comedic reactionary take to the way Kent Hovind behaves on his streams; that is, him as a public persona, especially when contrasted with his being some kind of "baptist minister" and yet speaks the way he does about so many peculiar subjects. More on that also later.
Here is where you wished to "clear the air" on things that I got "flat out wrong." This will certainly be a laugh, but not for the reasons you think.
You object to my saying Kent is a grifter and that Dinosaur Adventure Land / Genesis Baptist Church / Creation Science Evangelism (all differing facets of the same broad entity) is (are) a vanity project. You counter this by stressing that DAL has free admission, charges nothing for specialty services, and that somehow makes everything else acceptable, since you "give" and don't "take" as an entity. That a grift does not make -- no Joseph, the grift is built into the ministry itself by the nature of organized religion, the essence of controlling, if even just by influence, the hearts and minds of people to provide goods and services because they believe they are helping do something positive for their god of choice; actions which result first and foremost in the supporting of the person in charge of the organization -- in this case, Kent, and those resources being heavily focused into the physical existence of Dinosaur Adventure Land, seemingly as a priority, with DAL itself being focused primarily on Kent rather than Jesus. With Hovind himself on the front gates, printouts of his slides everywhere (including the "classroom" area, as I call it, on the "real tour") and a healthy smattering of Hovind products available, the place truly reeks of a shrine to ones self than it does a place to grow closer to the Abrahamic God. Kent may truly believe DAL is an embodiment of his love of the lord, but to anyone outside it is clearly a temple to himself and showing how much he (supposedly) loves the Lord.
I don't expect you to be able to see that, at all, but I stress it here now for the sake of completeness. Also, I don't think it's just Kent doing such but every evangelical scumbag out there. Ken Ham and his Creation Museum and Ark Encounter being far grander grifts, to be sure.
Regarding the "Hovind Epstein" joke (which I think is really the key thing here that got you (or, Kent properly) so upset) that indeed was a push to and past some limits that I personally have, but as anyone watching the video could reasonably tell, a joke. A dark joke, but a joke nonetheless. That being said, I would have preferred not to make that joke because, no, I do not in any way, shape, or form think Kent is any kind of trafficker like that. The comedy of the joke works on the grounds that we know Kent is NOT like that, and I would never actively accuse him of anything of the sort.
However, the joke does point out the fact that Kent does have friends who are convicted of sexual crimes against children -- people guilty of such commonly being called "pedophiles" in common parlance. If you would prefer for these individuals to be referred to as child molesters then that's fine, but it cannot be denied that at least one individual Kent has defended repeatedly, even on streams, was convicted on at least one, if not two, I believe, actions which would be considered sexual in nature against children as per laws in the areas these cases were adjudicated in.
I should be clear that these are facts according to legal record, and if you and Kent disagree on the validity of those court findings that is its own issue which can be taken up by the convicted party and the municipalities they were convicted in -- the fact remains it is factually correct to say that Kent Hovind is friends with at least a person who would be considered a "pedophile" colloquially or otherwise also called a "child molester."
Now, Kent can be friends with whomever he wishes to be, and I should be very clear as well that I am not discussing the incident that is directly related to current legal action being pushed by Hovind against a former member of DAL, nor do I claim any active involvement by Kent in anything related to that alleged incident -- only that, definitionally, Kent is friends with a person convicted of such crimes to where common parlance would include such verbiage to describe that individual.
That being said, comedic parody is a protected first amendment right with regards to public figures, but again, as a matter of decency I will try to refrain from making similar jokes in the future. Traditionally I would add in that I don't believe such and that it is a joke, but in that case I did move on with the stream. Still, anyone with any sense would know it was a joke and not an accusation of any wrongdoing on the part of Kent E Hovind, or anyone who resides or works at Dinosaur Adventure Land.
As far as DAL being a "Cult" it meets many criteria, and on broader definitions fits under the concept of Kent creating a "cult of personality" around himself, something common with more eccentric elements of fundamentalist ministry. It is certainly not a Waco or Jonestown, but elements are similar enough to warrant comparison. This should also be understood that, like many other statements made against DAL, that such is obviously opinion, which is again protected first amendment speech. Context clues and language comprehension once again become critical here in understanding the exact nuance in a statement, especially if, as many statements in my streams are, it is an obvious joke; hyperbole designed to provide humor to the audience. You should understand that from Kent, since he at least tries to joke regularly. Most of them aren't very good, but he tries.
Regarding censorship, it's cute you would say that my calling Kent a moron was a Terms of Service violation, when Kent will regularly call people "retarded" (an actual slur, mind you (and yes, one I've used but am working to say less often)) for accepting scientific fact. Indeed, in Wednesdays "Whack an Atheist" where Kent ostensibly brought up AJ (then rambled on about Haekel for what felt like forever) Kent not only brought up his usual "Evolution is the most dangerous religious cult" line (when it's neither a religion nor anything close to a cult in any way, shape, or form) but also said to "tell AI he's stupid" (which could have been more of a joke but with Kent who can tell since he's almost never funny), he said Eugenie Scott is a liar (not "I think she's a liar") outright, said his usual "sick mind Freud" and "Berzerkely" lines, dropped in a little misogyny, as is common for women hating boomers of his ilk, and finished the stream saying he'd play more of AJ but he didn't want to make someone "puke in (his) church" so it just amuses me that you would claim one little insult as a TOS violation compared to what Kent says regularly that could equally be considered such if you use such a snowflake like attitude towards self expression as you did there.
What's more, however, is that what you are referencing without explicitly saying it is the point I bring up every time in that after having been repeatedly banned you are enabling Kent to have a 1st party presence on YouTube again, all while off and on pulling the grift by saying they "keep taking us off YouTube" as if you and he are making new channels every day and keep getting taken off... which, if YouTube were to actually follow their own rules more strictly, would and could be the case.
Let's be clear that I don't give a damn if Kent has an active channel or not -- what I do care about is fair enforcement of policy, which was enforced on Kent's previous channels long before you were the tech guy at DAL. It amuses me that from the same people who think that a bakery should be able to not bake a cake for an event they do not agree with and suffer no repercussion you have no respect for another private company to enforce their own terms of service, and feel being punished for violating them is persecution.
It's not, and this idea you and so many on the right have that you're being persecuted is hilariously pathetic. Quit violating the terms of service for the platforms you use (like TikTok) and you won't get into trouble with them. I know full well I push the limits with every stream, and I believe we should be able to -- indeed, Kent should be able to say any deplorable garbage he wants to, but at the end of the day if he says something truly dangerous or makes some of the horrible comments he has (so many racist "jokes" and the like, among all kinds of other things) and the platform owner no longer wishes to allow him on the platform, that's just how this stuff work. It sucks sometimes, but I personally try to keep a balance. Not that you may be able to see such but there is. It's not all unhinged rants about family issues and whale penises in YamatoLand.
Regarding me being a "greater force for good" than Kent, I am. My choice in verbiage has nothing to do with moral judgments on the actions I take or the way I live my life. I support the bettering of all peoples, the improvement of living conditions everywhere, protecting nature as best is possible, and continued investigation into all facets of reality. I'm not the one telling them that some entity who cannot be demonstrated to exist has deemed them horrible unless they accept one arbitrary variation of a story about a god sacrificing himself to himself for a weekend to act as a loophole for the rules that very god came up with. I'm not the one telling people they are evil by default. I'm not the one actively working in supporting multiple genocides and actively trying to start what amounts to a third world war. That would be right wing evangelicals. Of course, you will most certainly differ on that opinion, as you will with much of what I have to say.
That's fine. I don't need to know you disagree. I already know you do, and I'm sure about what you, and Kent, would likely think and say as you read this. Your opinions matter not, beyond human curiosity, as you're very tiny elements in my life, beyond when I let you be a part of it in so far as covering yet another stream from Kent, which I always do on my own time, for fun: normally when I'm bored, hence the somewhat random times of my streams.
Lastly, regarding your proposition to visit DAL:
I can say on one hand I'd love to, but obviously I have reservations. Would I even be safe down there? Not so much from anyone at DAL, but being so deep in the middle of nowhere isn't a normal thing for me as, being a native Memphian I'm most certainly one of them "city boys" that isn't taken to all too kindly in those parts. Okay, I kid, partially, but I do have safety concerns.
You would be surprised to learn that, for as much as I love aircraft, I've never flown, so that would be a first. With Memphis International here the flight to Mobil or wherever would be likely trivial, so there's that.
Then comes, how would that be facilitated? This is where my gravest concerns are, as if you were to purchase the ticket would you not need more information than I'm willing to directly share with a group such as that of DAL? Kent has a habit of doxing those who oppose him, and I'd rather not deal with religious zealots trying to make my day to day life horrible because I dare disagree with "Dr" Dino!
That being said, I would not dare request to be fronted the money in any way either, as a matter of personal ethics. To request such would be absurd to me, so that's not happening. A bit of a chicken or egg scenario, in a sense.
I should also add that the actual value of such would be minimal in what you suggest with filming -- not the least of which the fact I have minimal equipment, but more-so the fact that if you ask anyone in a cult if they are in a cult, they won't say they are, because an element of cult mentality is that the members truly believe what they are there for and the group they are in is more voluntary than it may be to an outsider (in the traditional cult sense) but again, I stress that the cult aspect of DAL is a cult of personality surrounding Kent, and thus is a more loose / abstract thing that I could only demonstrate by documenting the entire place and making an argument for such based on how much "Kent Hovind" material I see in places (slides printed here, there, everywhere, or fewer than I would think.) Believe me, I love the idea (and had suggested in my stream the night before you sent this email) of just such a proposition being made, but in that hypothetical I jokingly had a "whole crew" to, if I may paraphrase, truly document what DAL is actually like. Amusing that you would come up with a similar idea.
One more practicality comes up in the fact that, unlike Kent, I work an actual day job. I also used up all of my current time off to facilitate the move I just completed, and so would not have free time to make such happen for many months at best. Naturally this would be best timed for a weekend visit, but that would require at the very least Friday and Monday off for transit, and even then I'd likely want a buffer day before and after to relax from all the antics that could happen at DAL -- I'm being serious about that too, there would likely be quite a bit of stuff I would want to check out to say "yeah, I was there, I did this and that" as I do most any place I visit -- so yeah, that's it's own little hurdle in things.
So, again, I tentatively accept on a time table to be determined in the future, pending me feeling like bothering with it down the line because trust me, going to southern Alabama is not very high on my list of things to do. Huntsville, however? Now that I'd visit in a heartbeat!
That being said Joseph, this email from you felt like a mix of a bit of strong-man tactics from Kent, a bit of a genuine request to tone down some of my rhetoric, and a genuine invitation for a massive detractor to come and see for themselves what the place is really like. Certainly gave me a mix of emotions and reactions as I read.
That all being said, please don't spend time crafting a massive reply to me. I don't mean that in an "I won't read it" way but in that I do not wish for us to have continued exchanges like this.
I will end with this -- I am still in a situation where I would like to plan some interaction, most commonly referred to as "debate" with Kent in a future time, preferably as we discussed before regarding cosmology, but alternately in the also mentioned "tag team" format that another person in my community suggested.
Additionally, many of my followers would like to debate Kent in some capacity, but they request it be done with me as the moderator, which I'm not sure how open you and Kent would be to such, but I think would be fun. The irony of how outright nice and proper I would be with Kent would throw everyone for a loop, one could say.
I think that's all I have to say for now in response. If you do reply I would prefer just for us to focus on the future debate / discussion concept and the possibility, since Kent wants more debates, me helping facilitate such. You should understand that many of us do not feel Donny is a partial enough moderator. for what that is worth.
Throwing an option out there. Honestly, if I were to be able to help Kent do more debates that would make me feel good, genuinely. as clearly for one reason or another people don't want to do them currently, and I think it's not nearly as much Kent as it is the venue.
~ChrisAs you can see, a complete as it needs to be response. Whatever happens following this is what it is, behavior like the grade school bullying attempt in the email from Joseph will result in Kent never getting any debate he wants so badly, and gives me more free time to enjoy my life.
Also, it’s pathetic that Kent can’t just email someone himself. He has to go through a hired goon.
oh no, all your arguement are invalid because you used profanitt and curse words. how dare you? it is better for you to lie and decieve and get “donations” from those easily led in a cult.