Eric is the son and chief acolyte of his father, the notorious liar and grifter, Kent Hovind, and was caretaker of the family 'business' while Kent was serving jail time for tax fraud and again for a violent assault on his former wife. Little Eric seems to be very much a chip off the old block-head
He is ignorant of, or is feigning ignorance of, the answers to several of these questions which can be found by a moment's search on the Internet, or by going to a decent reference library or any good bookshop.
The originals can be seen here: http://www.drdino.com/questions-science-cant-answer/. In the best traditions of the snake-oil peddler, they are nothing more than the God of the Gaps, gotcha! questions where the target marks are expected to not realise they are nothing more than the argument from ignorant incredulity combined with the false dichotomy fallacy. Eric assumes the targets can be relied on to assume, if science hasn't answered something, science won't ever answer it, so, since the only alternative is "God did it!", that wins by default. This saves the fraud the trouble of producing any evidence to support his/her contention, and taps into the parochial ignorance, scientific illiteracy and cultural chauvinism of his target audience.
This is the hallmark of the dishonest, intellectually bankrupt creationist apologist.
Let's take a look at them (in red)
Why am I here?
Because you were born. You'll need to talk to your mummy and daddy about how that happened.
Are you maybe assuming that you are so special that you have some special purpose or other? I'm afraid you're just not that important.
What happens when you die?
Your body's physiology ceases, then you begin to decompose. From then on it depends on what people do with your body - cremation, burial, etc. If you're very unfortunate, a predator eats you. In extremely rare circumstances, like falling into anoxic sediment or a tar pit, your bones may even become fossilised so biologists of the future can examine you to see what an earlier hominid looked like.
What is the purpose of my life?
Whatever purpose you chose to give it. Are you waiting for someone to do that for you?
What determines “Good” and “Evil”?
Human beings have evolved cultural norms which enable them to live and work together in co-operative groups. These are acquired from our parents, peers and authority figures in our culture during our long childhood. The units of cultural inheritance are known as 'memes'.
Where did love come from?
It evolved along with other human emotional responses. To understand it you need to study a little of neurophysiology and how hormones work. I take it this is a closed book to you?
Why does mankind abuse and kill its own?
Often because religious people believe people with different religions are evil and deserve to be killed. Some unfortunate people are born with psychopathic personalities which means they can't tell right from wrong. Many of these rely on a hand-book such as the Bible or Koran, though most who say they do so actually just cherry pick the parts they agree with by reference to their own cultural norms.
Where did the first teeny-weeny molecule of matter come from?
You really don't know much about this stuff, do you?
Molecules formed when atoms formed, when the nascent universe had cooled enough to allow electrons to be captured and held by protons. This happened about 300,000 to 500,000 years after the big bang, when the universe had cooled to 6000 degrees Celsius.
This can be found on the Internet or in any decent general science book.
Does a physical world exist beyond my mind?
Yes. You really aren't that important, you know.
Why are there male and female?
Because there is a clear evolutionary advantage, especially in multi-cellular organisms, of frequent re-mixing of genes. This increases the variance upon which natural selection acts and also increases the probability of new combinations of genes with a synergistic result.
Why does it take both sexes to create a new life?
It doesn't. Many organisms reproduce asexually and in those which do reproduce sexually, both gametes (sperm and ovum, ovule and pollen, etc.) are already alive at conception, having been produced by living tissues.
Life is not created at any point in the reproductive process. Biology seems to be another area of which you managed to remain ignorant. It's very apparent from that question that you have not much idea what you mean by 'life', or about basic biology.
What is life?
It’s quite obvious that you don’t know what you mean by ‘life’ or have a very hazy notion of what it is, so how would you know if your question has been answered? Are you talking about physiology or some other 'magic' ingredient which you want included and explained so it conforms to some pre-conceived superstition or other?
If the former, it's just chemistry. If the latter, YOU explain what it is; it's not science to make up stuff just to satisfy infantile superstition.
Where did laws come from?
Which laws? Human laws or 'natural' laws? Natural laws are simply descriptions of what happens. They didn't come from anywhere any more so than your weight came from somewhere independent of your body. Maybe you're confusing scientific laws with man-made, proscriptive or prescriptive laws. it's an easy mistake for people who know nothing about science.If you mean human laws, then there is probably little I can do to teach you if your basic education was that deficient. Were you home-'schooled'?
How did Time, Space and Matter come into existence?
See the answer to that same question which your dad also asked. Kent Hovind's 10 Fallacies Refuted
It's one of the answers both you and your dad have been ignoring and pretending hasn't been answered for months now. You could also have looked it up on the Internet or in any decent book on cosmology and quantum physics.
How did something come from nothing?
You'll find the answer here: What Makes You So Special?, but why have you assumed the default state of existence is nothing? How on Earth can 'nothing' once have existed? Science doesn't assume that, because it's nonsensical; the only people who do are people like you who argue that their god made everything out of nothing by magic.
The pertinent paragraph is:
In this universe all observations confirm that gravity is equal to the sum of the other three forms of energy and that, if gravity is the opposing form of the other three, the grand total of energy in the universe is zero. In total energy terms the universe is nothing.But you'll need to read the earlier part to understand this. I know! I know! That means you'll have to risk learning some basic science, but that's the way it is.
Well, there you go. Not exactly up to your dad's standard, laughable though that was, but I'm sure you did your best, even if you DID have to copy some of your dad's old questions to reach 10.
So, now you know your questions can be, and have been, answered, will you continue to claim science can't answer them, pretend to your dupes that your ignorant incredulity is scientific data, and try to get away with the God of the Gaps and false dichotomy fallacies, hoping your target marks won't notice?
What Makes You So Special? From The Big Bang To You
How did you come to be here, now? This books takes you from the Big Bang to the evolution of modern humans and the history of human cultures, showing that science is an adventure of discovery and a source of limitless wonder, giving us richer and more rewarding appreciation of the phenomenal privilege of merely being alive and able to begin to understand it all.
Available in Hardcover, Paperback or ebook for Kindle
Ok that settles it. Now Hovind can forget about these questions and move on to other things. I'm sure he will.
ReplyDeleteEric Hovind is a dick. http://patientandpersistant.blogspot.com/2011/05/eric-hovind.html
ReplyDeleteI cant believe that the "holy" Eric hovind thinks these questions are worth asking ans cant be answered by science . Mr Eric Hovind u r worse than Eric Cartman. Once google for Eric Cartman
ReplyDeleteEven if atheists didn't have answers to those questions that would be no proof that god exists. The answer "Ths big man on the sky made them" is still implausible and gives us no real information.
ReplyDeleteThe ignorance in evidence here is deplorable. The nut didn't fall far from the nutcase did it? I am embarrassed that there are people, with a license to drive!, that would even consider this list of questions as other than a sophist's attempt at obscuring scientific inquiry and relevancy.
ReplyDeleteYou're hilarious. And that millions of people share his ignorance is another disappointing fact. In many countries, including mine, a majority of population doesn't even know what Big Bang is, all that their mind can come up with is that a magic man did it.
ReplyDeleteI seriously love your blog :)
As Little Eric didn't have the courage to put his answers in a more permanent medium but chose instead to use sarcasm and condescension on Twitter, I've reproduced his Tweet in full below:
ReplyDelete@RosaRubicondior LOL, I can't stop Laughing! You call those answers? Wow, trying super hard to suppress the truth that you really know!
Posted 13 July 2011 06:25 UTC
This reply is, of course, a candidate for the Darwin Creationist Award.
I find all your answers perfect except the one on the question: Why does mankind abuse and kill its own? You could have simply explained the connection with evolution.
ReplyDeleteAtheist Crusader. Indeed, but I had hoped little Eric might see the frequent, indeed almost characteristic, connection between mass killings and the religion he purports to follow.
ReplyDeleteRosa,I have never been in confrontation with non-believing (if such a thing could exist) until recently. The hatred, the slander, lack of respect and dignity is rampant. The thing is, it's not really about the person being attacked either. These actions, for those who know, proofs the Bible correct. So, your words, actions, slander etc. has very little meaning. Find something worth doing and make your life useful. You will die alone anyway. Don't attack me now. I probably would never even see it.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it was expecting to much of you to expect a reasoned response to this blog. Obviously, you felt that smugly bigoted condescension was your best option for trying to cover your inability to.
DeleteDon't you ever wonder what it must be like to have evidence, reason, logic and above all, honesty and integrity to support your claims, like atheists have?
How are those actions proof? That makes no sense. The only thing we want is reason and objective proof, that is all we ask. Instead we get unreasonable claims and get called out as being in a conspiracy against religion. So pardon me for being rude and angry at the religious.
DeletePerhaps I don't understand what the point is behind Bible/Christian bashing... Do you believe that its wrong to be a Christian? I mean what do you hope to accomplish writing something like this that Hovind has probably never read?
ReplyDeleteI can see why you object to ignorant creationist stupidity, as exemplified by questions Eric Hovind has thrown at Evolutionists, actually being answered and exposed for what they are especially when the deception is that we can't answer them.
DeleteI can also understand why you wish atheists and evolutionists would just shut up and stop telling people the truth.
What I can't see however is any morality or commitment to truth and honesty in your objections.
In other words, Rosa has no answers. This whole blog post was nothing more than psychological babble, and poor philosophy at best. Science? Anything but... What a waste of time your post was...
ReplyDeleteHello Eric.
DeleteWell done for managing to think up a way to dismiss my answers to your questions - in just 2 years! With a little more time do you think you could have managed an honest one?
Problem #1... you refer to "the internet" as a reliable source. Not very smart on your part while trying to prove your case. Problem #2... your answers are from a "today's society" when you clearly do not understand the basic questions you are trying to answer. It appears they went right over your head. Problem #3... "Why does it take both sexes to create a new life?" You answered this question discussing how many organisms do not need both male and female when you completely missed the question. However, it is normal human behavior, I suppose, to answer a question with something that obviously had nothing to do with the actual question. Problem #4... All your answers were not based on actual fact. It appears you Google something and whatever you read must be fact because the said author has letters behind their name. Unfortunately, to be considered scientific fact only occurs when 2 or more scientist agree on a specific subject. Problem #5... you never answered one of these questions with seriousness and logical reasoning. Therefore, all your answers dismiss any logical thinking.
ReplyDeleteProblem #1 Nowhere do I refer to "the internet" (sic) as a reliable source. It's never a good idea to start off with a blatant lie and hope readers won't check. It makes you look disingenuous and disinterested in the truth.
DeleteProblem #2 Facts are facts regardless of what society they are from, whether "today's society" (sic) or not. Why did you need to try to avoid responsibility for that phrase with inverted commas?
Problem #3 Maybe you just didn't notice the answer to the previous, functionally identical, question or just failed to appreciate it was asking the same thing. Perhap too, though unlikely, you failed to read the rest of the answer, or failed to comprehend it, just as you failed to understand the answer, apparently.
Problem #4 Bearing false witness is regarded as a sin by Christians. There is no exception for when you don't like answers to questions and so need to launch into a gratuitous ad hominem and claims to know things you can't possibly know. I understand that you probably didn't have any alternative though and, as we saw with your first 'Problem', truth is of no importance to you.
Problem #5 I'm sorry you appear not to have understood the answers. Is there an adult you could ask to explain them to you?
Problem #6 Ignorance and a lack of basic honesty seems to be a problem for you, as is your obvious contempt for my readers who you seem to have assumed will take your word for things and not bother to check.