One of the implications of Young Earth Creationism, the notion that there is scientific support for a hyper literal reading of the Book of Genesis, is that human beings, as they are now, must have existed contemporaneously with dinosaurs.  Kids love dinosaurs. So you can understand why Kent Hovind, Doctor Dino, came up with the notion of Dinosaur Adventureland so that he could teach “real science” to young people while they played around with dinosaurs.


The militantly rational as, I call them, find Dinosaur Advetureland offensive in more ways than there are begats in Genesis. Amanda Kondrat’yev has been covering the Kent Hovind trial under the pen name Janet Yang.  She is planning counter demonstrations at the May trial and would like to see a park that teaches “establishment science” or what most of us would call “science” at the site of the original Dinosaur Adventureland.  Here is what she has written. PJR

I visited Anthony Jaworski today. He is the current owner of the only part of Kent Hovind’s compound that wasn’t tangled into ministerial trusts by Hovind’s son and friends/family. I had written a letter to Mr. Jaworski inquiring about the Dinosaur Adventure Land property. He called me about two weeks later and invited me to see it. I went the following morning with my husband and a real estate investor/filmmaker friend.

When we arrived, Mr. Jaworski slid open the gate and pulled up patio chairs. He claims that police and the owner of the Drowsy Poet are working with Hovind’s family to force him out of the house. He has been assaulted to the point of losing eyesight. He says that when he deals with the police they too ask him to sell the property rather than helping him. He has lost all of his money to lawyer fees and court costs, and complains about the terrible economy in Pensacola. He wants nothing more than to go back to Maryland and get his money back. He says there is only one building going up in the area (N. Palafox), but that it is a good sign.

I look over at the abandoned Dinosaur Adventure Land wistfully. It would be so perfect as an actual science learning play center. More on the Pensacola Dino U later. We may need a letter campaign or something to break up those ministerial trusts. Not quite sure.

After it all, he told us that he believed God restored his eyesight because he prayed for days, and that Christians like Hovind’s family confuse him because they are so horrible to him. He called us Angels, and thanked us for filling him in about Kent Hovind and the charges he faces. Until today, he believed what he had heard on Alex Jones and was convinced that Hovind was being tortured instead of still in business through his son’s Creation Store just a few streets from Dinosaur Adventure Land. Even after being “allegedly” harassed, framed, and assaulted he was willing to believe that it was the government’s fault for selling the land to him when the Hovinds won’t leave him alone. He has no friends, no money, his car is broken, and he’s ready to go. We made sure he knew that he could call us in case of trouble. I want to help him leave.

Dino U is an idea to replace the Creation Science Evangelism park with an actual Science park with fun things that help kids understand the world including Dinosaurs and their place in the history of the world. It is important! You cannot leave out science and then wonder why kids are growing up unable to perform to standards. It turns every instant into a learning opportunity and unleashes the mind. There will always be new questions that need to be asked so that problems can be solved. Hovind used the park to brainwash children and indoctrinate them into obedience. Dino U would help supplement the deficiency in science education in the area.

There are many under performing and failing schools within a 30 minute drive. The closest school to Dinosaur Adventure Land is a charter school where teachers were caught just last week in a scandal involving grade changing and teachers watching porn in the classrooms. Escambia County is in dire need of Dino U and knows it. The idea gains supporters daily, and I am determined to make something happen. Never in my life have I felt something so desperately needing attention than the state of education system here and the gross abuse and greed from many of the churches.

Pensacola Christian College has a sprawling campus, state of the art facilities, and uses them to ignore science in favor of religion. PCC intentionally refuses science and is unaccredited because of it, yet they own so much of Pensacola’s land and wealth and live richly tax free. There are homeless people outside by the interstate, yet PCC has security cameras and segway cops guarding the vast amount of space that could be used to help.

You also cannot forget A Beka Books. Without A Beka, we would not have the steady supply of Bibles and religious home school textbooks. This business, like all the rest of the ones they own, is not taxed. Hovind probably wouldn’t even be in jail if he had filed the right papers because Christian privilege permeates this whole area and the nation. Why should the churches be fencing off their tax free property? Why should public schools suffer while bigger churches are opened every day?

I will say it: THE CITY NEEDS HELP. THE COUNTRY NEEDS HELP. THE BEST THING CHURCHES COULD DO WOULD BE PAY THEIR TAXES AND HELP ALL OF THEIR NEIGHBORS AT ONCE.

I’m trying to organize a counter protest to the anti-choice/homophobic/delusional people who came from out of town to support Hovind. What I want to do is walk right into Dinosaur Adventure Land and hold a large concert/speaking event. I want to hear from people that have been hurt by these people. Everything science, anti-homophobic, pro-choice, climate, Humanists, Atheists, Progressive Christians, and more is welcome. Costumes would be hilarious and probably make national news.

What we will probably do is just go downtown to the courthouse. A party sounds like so much more fun. Who’s ready for civil disobedience? It can’t be just me again.