The Hovind Scale - Calculate Hovind Factors with ease!

Belief In Scripture No doctrinal belief requiredMetaphorical use of Biblical/Qu’ranic quotationBelief in scripture as the infallible word of God. Timeless, inerrant and absolute. (AiG/The flud etc.)

Scientific Illiteracy Full understanding of detailed, advanced scientific principlesOverall grasp of principles with some understanding of specific area being discussedVague understanding of general principle but with poor grasp of many detailsNo understanding or knowledge of area being discussedRejection of basic scientific facts/laws/robust theories and/or denial of any evidence that contradicts scriptureComfort Zone - As previous, but more extreme and puerile

Idiocy No discernible stupiditySlightly silly, but understandableFoolishDaftRather funny in a slightly worryingsort of wayVery funny in a very worrying wayScary stuffVery scaryUnlikely to be accepted by anyone with more than two functioning neuronsMoronic. Stark-bollock-naked, off-the-wall, wing-nutKirk Cameron or VenomFangX

Paradox Statement is logical and self-consistentStatement acknowledges slight flaw in internal logic but glosses over it with babble.Statement relies on an assumed divine intervention to explain self contradiction.Self contradiction invalidates statement completely, and is left unaddressed.

Mendacity Total honestyStatement maker knows they are telling enough of a porkie to try to mislead a generally credulous audienceStatement maker knows they are lying enough to try to mislead an educated audience, or they are repeating a lie that they have previously been corrected onWhopper! (including plagiarism)Complete, burn-in-Hell, perjury grade, super-lie - for example, one that is strategically designed to mislead authorities or the general public (e.g. as witnessed in the Dover trial and Expelled).


Hovind Factor:                                                 True Believer™ Rating (TBR):  

The Hovind Scale is used to rate Creationist statements about the nature of reality and assign a value to how ignorant, scientifically illiterate and / or outright dishonest they are.  

It was designed by the forumites of RichardDawkins.net, and one of them, soul_biscuit, set out the details on their blog here. You can see reference statements that illustrate each rating here.

It is named after the convicted fraudster and Young Earth Creationist Kent Hovind. He is currently serving time because of his "overly flexible" attitude to the truth, and before his incarceration was regularly lying for Jesus.

Honesty is the main factor in determining the Hovind Factor - a truly honest Creationist cannot get a Hovind Factor of more than 20. Creationists who knowingly seek to deceive will score highly.

Since honesty can be hard to determine (unless there happens to be supporting evidence like court records), and since many zealots are truly sincere in their beliefs, this calculator also includes the True Believer™ Rating (TBR) which simply removes the Mendacity factor from the equation and scales up accordingly to give a maximum score of 100 (if Mendacity is rated at maximum, the TBR will equal the Hovind Factor).

Once you have ascertained the Hovind Factor, you can get a general idea of what level of Creationist you are dealing with by checking their score against the descriptions below:


0 - The Blue Butterfly Effect - a well constructed and intellectually honest argument, informed by a comprehensive general scientific understanding and in-depth knowledge of the specifics of any relevant scientific work. If you want to debate this person, you'd better know what you're talking about!

1-5 - Surprisingly Decent - a pretty good effort, with a combined honesty / scientific understanding far beyond the typical Creationist zealot. You might well be able to have a sensible discussion with this person. Educated laymen with a genuine desire to explore the issues may well turn up in this category.

6-11 - Pushing The Limits of Decency - starting to go beyond what is reasonable, but dishonesty or scientific illiteracy are becoming too obvious to ignore.

12-20 - Partially Creotarded - Some very serious misunderstandings about reality, and a hint of zealotry beginning to rear its ugly head

21-30 - Creotarded - A run of the mill Creotard, with a balance of ignorance, illogic and mendacity

30-59 - Profoundly Creotarded - A person who makes statements that fall into this category likely has little or no scientific knowledge, and they are probably to be found actively Lying for Jesus at every opportunity.

60-89 - VenomFangTastic - not quite up in the fully Kentian levels, as there may be some slightly mitigating circumstances (youth or inexperience for example), but still a person who makes statements falling into this category can almost certainly be relied on to produce long winded and scientifically illiterate or self-contradictory arguments ex recto at a moment's notice

90-99 - Positively Hovindian - while not managing to be quite as ignorant or mendacious as the master himself, this person's statement still displays positively Hovindian levels of scientific illiteracy and dishonesty

100 - Utter Hovind - the person's statement indicates that they might actually BE Hovind (if he has net access from his cell), but if they're not they are certainly talking complete and utter Hovind! Lies and ignorance combined and asserted as fact! The state of the art of Lying for Jesus.


Online Hovind-Factor Calculator designed by Alltruism from RichardDawkins.net