I recently had a chance to watch a film that was previously shown to me in a high school AP Biology course. The movie is actually a compilation of a short series of lectures by Kent Hovind, an Evengelical minister who an outspoken proponent of theYoung Earth Creationist movement (for a good introduction to Kent Hovind’s teachings, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLCsd0MZaso). Kent Hovind, or Dr. Dino as he is commonly referred to, is well known in the scientific community for claiming that the world is less than 6,000 years old, and he also believes that humans and dinosaurs lived together (and indeed still do so today). For the purposes of this post and the overall nature of this blog, I don’t think it would be practical to analyze the validity of Kent Hovind’s arguments. However, I would like to present my thoughts and opinions on the nature of Kent Hovind’s rhetorical strategy in relation to some of our recent discussions in class.
In On Christian Teaching, Saint Augustine comments on the nature of rhetoric, specifically noting that it is a neutral discipline that can be used for the presentation of any idea, good or bad. I hadn’t previously considered this, and I found it particularly interesting and frightening; many times an audience will be pay more attention to the way a speaker presents ideas than the ideas themselves. In high school I was surprised that anyone could believe that the world is only 6,000 years old, that carbon dating is Satan’s creation, and that dinosaurs can still be found in various parts of the world today (all ideas supported by Hovind). However, after viewing Kent Hovind’s videos a second time, I realized that he is a charismatic and confident public speaker that is capable of constructing a seemingly feasible argument. It troubled me, probably much in the same way it troubled Saint Augustine, to see ideas and concepts distorted in this manner and then subsequently presented with an “air of factuality” that made them plausible and possibly even mutually exclusive. Although Kent Hovind’s teaching are supposedly Christian, they are derived from a somewhat narrow reading of the Bible.
Although Saint Augustine wrote On Christian Teaching well over 1500 years ago, I found it interesting that many of his thoughts on rhetorical strategies still apply today. In the specific case of Kent Hovind, radical interpretations of biblical scripture have attracted thousands of followers. Much of this success is likely due to Kent Hovind’s humorous, energetic, and seemingly informed style of speaking. Although Kent Hovind has been serving time in a federal prison since January 2007, he still has a large group of followers who distribute his DVD’s and propagate his ideas (see www.drdino.com). Perhaps Saint Augustine understood the power of a strong rhetorical strategy better than most; even after being convicted as a felon by the United States government, Kent Hovind is still able to influence the lives and thoughts of thousands of people.
2 comments:
This isn't a response to this post but rather a response to what you posted on my post after I posted a comment on one of your posts(I hope that isn't confusing). Inherently when I'm referring to good and bad in the human sense; since, as you mentioned, we can't percieve what is truly good or bad. When referring to "bad" I guess that I am assuming the fact that some things in life are usually (not in all cases) things that, as humans, we don't really like to experience (pain, death, sadness, etc.). And I also assume that people like to experience things like: pleasure, happiness, my carresses, etc. (ok maybe not everyone likes my carresses, but I know some people do). Really this whole thing comes down to that whole "We can't know the truth (the true truth) so we just do our best to make sense of it" canundrum. Such is life as a human being. If I didn't answer your question in any way jus let me know, I can't really go back and look at your comment/my post while I'm posting this. I started a personal blog featuring random thoughts from my head, If you wanna chech it out the link is: http://cullenperceptions.blogspot.com/
I really like exchanging ideas with you, I hope you can offer some more feedback in the future. Life is a learning process and I hope our exchanges influence that process positively... if not... at least we'll be able to exchange a joke now and then.
I really like this post. I have never heard of this "Dr. Dino" but I'll be sure to check out the video eventually. The fact that someone can win over people simply by being an eloquent speaker is, I agree, very frightening. This has happened before; Malcom X is a great example of someone who affected people in this way. His ideas were radical and violent, but since he was such a good speaker, he won over a great number of people. I think the two things a person needs to do to take over the world are as fallows: 1) you have to sound like you know what you're talking about. 2) and you have to give people something that has been taken away from them (most likely you took it away too) just give the people what they want (though, admittedly, this isn't as easy as it sounds. Everyone wants different things). There may be a solution to that... that is: make everone hate something/someone and then get rid of it (falls under giving them what they want). I really am starting to feel too evil... I think I'm going to stop formulating "take over the world" plans. Nate... I'd like you to know you are looking mighty handsome today, even more than usual. Have a nice day!
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