How to Teach Creation in Schools — Kent Hovind

Well, thank you for joining us. My name is Kent Hovind, I was a high school science teacher for 15 years and earned my doctorate in education. I have been very concerned about education and particularly the subject of the teaching of evolution and creation in our public schools.

It is my great honor in the last 10 years to be an evangelist speaking on the subject of creation and evolution and getting into many, many hundreds of public schools and sharing the most important topic of origins with the kids there in public schools.

Teaching Creation Science in Public Schools

What I would like to do in this tape is cover two subjects. Number one, we are going to talk about what can be done, what can teachers do in a public school. What does the law say? What is right and what is wrong?

And then secondly, the second half of this tape will be an actual presentation of me speaking to about 700 students in a public school. And many teachers will use this tape to show to their class the evidence for creation and the evidence against evolution because I try to avoid referring to God or the Bible, though there is no reason that you can't, I just purposely don't when I go speak in public schools.

I would like to say first of all that most of the public school teachers that I know are sincere, dedicated, professional people. They are oftentimes very intelligent and very godly people who want to do right.

My brother is a 28-year veteran teaching in public schools. My mom taught for 20 years and retired from teaching public schools. Many simply do not know that they can teach creation science. For some reason, people think that you can't talk about creation or the Bible in the public schools and I would like to show you what the law says and simply put that thought to rest.

The Historical Role of the Bible and Creation in Education

So what does the law say? What can we teach anyway? Well, to give you a little history, in the 1800s when the public school system began in the early 1800s, they used the Bible as a curriculum book. It was part of the classroom and teachers were taught, students were taught straight from the Bible.

They were taught about the Noah and the flood and the whole story of creation. There is no problem at all. As the public school system began to grow and spread around the country, people began to include the evolution teaching, particularly about the mid -1860s or 70s when Darwin's book started to become popular.

Teachers began to include some of this in their curriculum. Then in the early 1920s, some states passed laws requiring schools to not teach evolution. The most famous, of course, is the Scopes Monkey Trial, the world's most famous court trial.

It took place in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. This is the actual transcript of the trial right here. What happened, Tennessee had passed a law that says you cannot teach evolution and there is a long story about that trial and especially about the books that have been written or the movie that was done since then called Inherit the Wind, which is an absolute perversion of what really happened.

I would recommend you actually read the court transcript yourself, read it word for word and then as you watch the movie, you will see thousands of changes that were made purposely to make the Christians and the Bible -believing people or the creationists look dumb.

That is not at all what happened there in Dayton, Tennessee that hot summer in 1925. So there is information you can get from Bryan College, which was started in honor of William Jennings Bryan, who was the man who defended the teaching of creation and the exclusion of evolution in that trial.

You could read what Mr. Bryan had to say on the subject. You can get the entire court case from Bryan College or you can get good information from George Searle, who has written quite an expose of the errors in the video and the movie Inherit the Wind.

Please do not show that to your students or if you do, give them some equal time by showing creationist information. You certainly can do that, but in 1925, the evolutionists lost the case. They lost that day.

Scopes, the teacher who claimed he taught evolution, though he didn't know if he ever did or not, Scopes was fined $100. Later, the fine was overturned on a technicality, but the case was never overturned.

It remained against the law to teach evolution in many states until 1968. The last laws banning the teaching of evolution were overturned in 1968. And now it's OK to teach evolution. It's always been OK to teach creation.

There's never been a law against it. There are numerous impact articles put out by the Institute for Creation Research. They put these out there, 10 cents a piece, and they're up to 350 something now.

So you could get all the back issues for $35. This goes through all the different things about creation, evolution, and quite a few of these impact articles deal just with the topic of teaching creation in public schools.

Might be very helpful information to show you that you can teach creation science in your public school. Even the evolutionists admit this. It's never been against the law to teach creation. Stephen Jay Gould, a raving evolutionist, said no statute exists in any state to bar instruction in creation science.

It could be taught before and it can be taught now. So he knows it can be taught. Evolutionary biologist Michael Zimmerman said the Supreme Court ruling did not in any way outlaw the teaching of creation science in public school classrooms.

Quite simply, it ruled that in the form taken by the Louisiana law, it is unconstitutional to demand equal time for this particular subject. Creation science can still be brought into science classrooms if and when teachers and administrators feel that it is appropriate.

Numerous surveys have shown that teachers and administrators favor just this route. And in fact, creation science is being taught in science courses throughout the country. So don't let somebody tell you you cannot talk about creation in the classroom.

Yes, you certainly can. Eugenia Scott, the president of the National Center for Science Education, who I debated one time on the radio, kind of a one-sided debate. I got about eight minutes and she got about 45 minutes.

But Eugenia Scott, whose organization, the National Center for Science Education, exists to stop people from teaching creation in the classrooms. They put out pamphlets all the time, sending them to public schools every place.

They're very well funded. And they say, you know, don't teach creation in the classrooms and only teach evolution in the classrooms. And there's really a lot of misinformation coming out and teachers are just plain confused about what to do.

But Eugenia Scott said the Supreme Court decision says only that the Louisiana law violates the constitutional separation of church and state. It does not say that no one can teach scientific creation.

And unfortunately, many individual teachers do. Some school districts even require equal time for creation and evolution. William Provine, quite a strong believer in evolution theory, said teachers and school boards in public schools are already free under the Constitution of the USA to teach about supernatural origins if they wish in their science classes.

Laws can be passed in most countries of the world requiring discussion of supernatural origins in science classes and still satisfy national legal requirements. He continued and said, I have a suggestion for evolutionists.

Include discussion of supernatural origins in your classes and promote discussion of them in public and other schools. Come off your high horse about having only evolution taught in science classes. The exclusionism you promote is painfully self-serving and smacks of elitism.

Why are you afraid of confronting the supernatural creationism believed by the majority of persons in the USA and perhaps worldwide? Shouldn't students be encouraged to express their beliefs about origins in a class discussing origins by evolution?

Well, yay William. I think that's good. I think, yes, students should be taught both sides of this vital issue. Ultimately, there are only two options. Either there is a creator or there isn't. And it's perfectly fine to teach the kids there is a creator or the teacher could say, I believe there is a creator.

It's perfectly fine to do that. They want to get impact article number 196, which explains some of the laws about teaching creation science in a public school. It's always been perfectly fine. The ACLU seems to have been very instrumental in spreading some false information or misleading information, trying to let teachers think they cannot talk about creation in the classroom.

I think what typically happens is the ACLU will threaten a lawsuit if some teacher teaches creation. Now, they would lose the lawsuit, but that doesn't matter. The fact that they threatened a lawsuit makes the average school board run and hide and say, well, let's not talk about the Bible or talk about creation because we can't afford to defend ourselves against this lawsuit.

Even though the ACLU would lose, they will threaten the suit and sometimes even bring suit just so that the harassment factor will cause teachers to stop teaching creation. And that is most unfortunate, but happens, I'm afraid, all the time.

Teachers are not allowed to convert the students or try to get the students to become a Baptist or Catholic or Buddhist or something like that, but they certainly can talk about creation in the classroom.

You may want to get information from Elizabeth Ridenour, the National Council for Bible Curriculum in public schools from North Carolina. They've done a tremendous job on putting out information about how you can get a Bible class started in your public school.

It's always been perfectly fine. You may want to get the book by Dwayne Gish, Teaching Creation Science in Public Schools, showing how that it is perfectly fine. You might want to get information from the Gablers.

The Gablers in Longview, Texas, have spent a lifetime, for the last 40 years, they've been putting out information on good public school textbooks. And what does the law actually say? They review all the textbooks that come out and help people select good books.

For instance, the Gablers have said states can legally require teachers to discuss evolution in science class. They cannot require them to discuss creation. Teachers may discuss creation in science classes if they wish.

Supreme Court Rulings and Classroom Religious Instruction

So what's happened is some people, I think well-meaning people, have tried to go into state legislatures and say, I demand creation be taught. Well, the Supreme Court has consistently ruled against that.

But the Supreme Court says, look, you can teach it if you want, but we cannot make anybody teach it. We cannot demand that it be taught. Courts allow states to require discussing scientific weaknesses in evolution, but not requiring discussing evidence for creation.

Let's just look at some of the actual Supreme Court cases and see what they've said. In 1963, the Supreme Court said, it certainly may be said the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities.

Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may be affected consistently with the First Amendment.

In 1980, the Supreme Court said the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion or the like. It's perfectly fine to include creation in the classroom, even teach the Bible in the classroom.

Eighth Circuit Court ruled in 1980, it's OK to teach the Bible in a public school. In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled again. They said teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of mankind to school children might be done with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science instruction.

They said teachers already possess the flexibility to present a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind and are free to teach any and all facets of the subject. California State Board of Education ruled in their national policy on teaching natural science.

They said discussions of any scientific fact, hypothesis or theory related to the origins of the universe are appropriate to the science curriculum. If you want to keep up on what's going on in education and curriculum, you may want to get a hold of Fred, FredB001 at Spectre .net and say, put me on the loop and you'll get all sorts of emails keeping you up to date on what's happening with education.

You may also want to get the video Crisis in the Classroom by Phyllis Schlafly, tremendous video showing what's happening in our public school classrooms and what the kids are being taught. The average teacher has to rely on things in the textbooks.

Evaluating Public School Textbooks

And for many years, it's been a hobby of mine to collect public school textbooks. I have hundreds of them. My wife says too many. But as I review these textbooks, it's sad to see the things that are taught in these textbooks, things that just simply are not true.

But the average teacher doesn't have time when they've got all these lessons to prepare to know they don't have time to study them all to find out which books are good. I mean, which one should I use for my kids?

Even people on the textbook selection committee often do not know. How do I tell which books are good? What do I do anyway? Well, you might want to get the impact article number 278 from the Institute for Creation Research, ICR .org, where they rated the textbooks in 1991.

They took all the textbooks that are available for biology, for instance, and rated them based upon the percentage of text devoted to evolution. How strongly is evolution pushed in this book? And I think you'll find they range all the way from not much to a whole lot in the textbooks.

For instance, Merrill Science put out biology, a book called An Everyday Experience. It only had 2 .9 of the book devoted to evolutionary teaching. Even that was isolated into a few simple places, a few single places where it would be easy to simply skip those sections or cut the pages out.

I don't know why that thought never occurs to people, but man, if your school bought the book, you have the authority to cut the pages out if you don't want your kids taught that information. Another option is to get stickers in the front of the book that warn the kids about information that's not true.

And the school districts are free to teach creation if they want. They're free to exclude evolution. The state can require them to discuss evolution, but they certainly cannot require them to believe in evolution.

You'll find the books range from 2 .9 in teaching of evolution all the way up to 15 where they promote the evolution theory like it's some kind of fact of science. Don't you dare question this. I would recommend you do two things.

If you're on the textbook selection committee or if you're going to select books for your school, pick the book that's the least poisonous, the one with the least amount of evolution in it, and then do two things.

Write to the other publishers and tell them why you didn't pick their book. If you wrote to HBJ, Harcourt, Bristow, Banovich, and said, we did not pick your book this year because you had too much evolution or false information.

Textbooks are very good at using false information to push the evolution theory, and that simply isn't fair, of course, isn't right, and is actually illegal in many states. But they don't have any other evidence for their theory, so they use false information, things that have been proven wrong years ago, as supposed evidence for their theory.

For instance, textbooks will often teach that the human embryo has gill slits, which was proven wrong in 1874, but it's still in textbooks today. Every biology textbook that I'm aware of, and I have hundreds of them, teaches that the human embryo has gill slits, and that is evidence that we went through a fish stage in our development.

Proven wrong at the Cort and Jenna in 1874. I don't know why that's still in the textbooks. That simply should be taken out. They also teach that there are vestigial organs, like the human has a vestigial tailbone or something.

That's not true at all. There are no vestigial organs, like an appendix, that's part of your immune system. So the textbooks teach things to the kids that just simply are not true. That doesn't mean all the teachers are teaching these things, but the textbooks certainly contain that information.

We've got a whole videotape, two hours long, on this very topic, lies in the textbooks. We also have produced a little booklet called, Are You Being Brainwashed? by your public school science textbook, that might give students or teachers some helpful information to know what is not true.

I was in a debate one time with a professor who believes in evolution, and I showed some of the things that are not true in the textbooks. I went for about an hour. He got up and he said, Now folks, Mr. Hovind is right.

These things are not true. But I'd like to ask him a question. What would he replace them with? I thought, I have to find a replacement for evidence for his theory? I would say, if you don't have any evidence for your theory, maybe you need to get a new theory.

I don't know if that thought ever occurred to him before or not, but I sure suggested it to him. It's understandable that people want kids to believe a particular way. I mean, I try to convert people to believe what I believe, and I think probably everybody in the world does that.

But there are some people who are very dedicated to teaching evolution, and they want to make sure kids believe this theory. One of the worst of the textbook publishers that I've seen in all my study on this topic is the BSCS series, where if they get involved in it, you can count on it, it will be loaded with evolution.

They were one of the first groups, one of the government funded groups, to publish textbooks in 1960, 61, 62, 63, during that era. Many books began to come out really pushing evolution strongly, and there's lots of reasons behind why that happened.

If you give me a call, we can go into a long discussion sometime on that. But there's an alternative. If a teacher says, well, what book should I get? Well, I recommend you get The Least Poisonous, and that may change from year to year.

It doesn't mean it's always going to be the Merrill Science. They may put a whole bunch in their books next time. You might want to get ahold of the Gabler's. They would be helpful on discussing that.

You might want to just get a supplemental book like this one, Of Pandas and People. This little book is an excellent biology book, but it covers biology from an intelligent design perspective, instead of millions of years of evolution.

And that may be something you could use in your classroom, where it doesn't talk about God or the Bible. It just says, hey, there must have been a designer, an intelligent designer. I think what's in these books is so important, because what the kids read in a book, of course, especially junior high, high school level, they're going to think, well, it's in the book.

It must be true. Adolf Hitler said, let me control the textbooks, and I will control the state. Who selects the books you buy anyway? And how is this done? Well, textbook selection, basically, to simplify a kind of a complex process here, there are 50 states in America, 22 of those states have a state textbook selection committee.

In the other states, the teacher can pick their own books or the school district can pick their books. Now, there are no regulations. But in the 22 states that have a state textbook selection committee, there will be 12 or 15 or 20 people meet in the state capitol, typically, and they will get a book from each of the publishers.

The publishers will send a sample copy of their book, sometimes they even send a representative and whine them and dine them and say, you know, please buy our books. They're trying to sell their books.

Money is the bottom line. And these 12 publishers will send their books saying, please buy our book. Then the textbook selection committee will look over the 12 books or 10 or whatever it is, and they will pick out a few that they recommend.

Textbook Selection Committees and Local School Decisions

In Florida, for instance, where I live, the state textbook selection committee narrows it from 12 down to five. Those five titles are sent to each of the local school districts, and the school district will select a committee of people.

Usually the school board members will select somebody to represent them on the textbook selection committee. That committee will meet typically in January or February to look over the books that are available so that they can get them ordered and get them in time for September.

The committee then will look over the five approved state books, and they will pick one or two that they approve for their county. And then those books will be purchased by the teacher and used for the next six years in class.

One year they'll pick science, and the next year they pick English or history. They rotate. Different districts have different ways they do it, but that's the general concept. And the atheists in evolution have seemed to have been really good at getting on the textbook selection committees to make sure evolution is taught.

They know, of course, they can't hold a meeting and teach everybody evolution in a town meeting because nobody would show up to the meeting. So they have to present the evolution at the taxpayer's expense via the textbooks.

And that's where teachers come in, and they can do something about it. You can select books that simply don't contain that information, or put a warning sticker in the front, or cut out the bad pages.

I mean, your school bought the book. You can do with it as you please. So I'd recommend you maybe get on that committee. Some practical things you can do. And this has been done in many areas. Get the pages, get a book.

Let's say you already paid $50 for the book. You don't want to throw the whole book away. So you get the book and find the places where false information is presented, like the gill slits, the tailbone being vestigial, the horse having four toes, the difference, every one of the so-called caveman evidence for evolution, even the section about the geologic column and the layers being different ages.

Absolutely not true. And I cover all that on our seminar videotape. You might want to get that seminar on lies in the textbooks. But you can look at your textbook, find the places where the information is not correct, and cut the page out.

I'm sure you can get local volunteers and churches in your area that would be thrilled to come help do that. Cut out the false information. If you'd like, send me a sample copy of your book, and I will make a list and tell you what pages need to be removed.

I have read through scores, if not hundreds and hundreds of these textbooks, and I can find these things very quickly. Or, you know, an alternative to that, you could simply glue the pages together, the pages that contain false information.

You could put a warning sticker on the front cover of your textbook. Alabama requires a warning sticker if books teach evolution to warn the kids the difference between micro and macro evolution. You may want to get my little brainwashed book, which contains much information in there about lies in the textbooks, to show the students, hey, kids, this is not true.

This has been proven wrong a long time ago. Many states have laws that require textbooks to be accurate, and I think that's very reasonable. For instance, Florida Statute 233 .09 says, all instructional materials recommended by each council for use in their schools shall be, to the satisfaction of each council, accurate.

Now, the problem with the Florida law is that little phrase, to the satisfaction of each council. There's the problem. There are things in Florida textbooks that are absolutely not accurate. They're bold-faced lies, but the council said they were fine, so they're tolerated.

They need to get the lawmakers that have some backbone to stand up and say, look, take that phrase out. Textbooks should be accurate, period. Texas has a law that says, instructional materials shall present the most factual information, and theories shall be clearly distinguished from facts and presented in an objective manner.

Now, they're not in Texas textbooks, and I've got a Texas textbook right here beside me. I've got quite a few of them. They are not presented objectively. Evolution is taught dogmatically, but the law says it's supposed to be.

In Wisconsin, the administrative code says, textbooks shall have factual accuracy. In Alabama, they have a sticker that says, this textbook discusses evolution. A controversial theory, some scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living things.

No one was present when life first appeared on earth, therefore any statements about life's origins should be considered as theory, not fact. Microevolution, it's got a whole section describing micro and macroevolution, which are very different, by the way.

No connection whatsoever between the two. You might want to get one of the Alabama stickers and use it as a model to create something for your school textbooks, that you could warn the kids, hey, this information is not true.

I think it's also important that students and teachers be aware of their legal rights on this topic. For instance, you might want to get this book, Students' Legal Rights, on your public school campus, showing how the students have the right to be exempt from any class that is teaching something contrary to their religion.

If the parents go to the school and say, look, I don't want my kid taught evolution, I don't want them taught sex education, or whatever, the schools have to abide by that. They have to say, okay, if you don't want the kid taught that, then we will take them out.

And they have to provide alternative material, and they cannot punish the student for not being in the class. They can't test them on things where they weren't, when the student wasn't there. So I think that would be a reasonable way to do it.

Legal Guidance and the Public School Presentation

Now, what's happening in our schools has me deeply concerned, as I go speak in public schools very frequently, and honestly, I would like to help. I think it's important that we understand the law. What does the law say?

The law says you can teach creation if you want. You don't have to, but you can if you want. Don't let anybody tell you you can't. There seems to be a lot of confusion on this topic, and it's unnecessary.

I think we need to get back to teaching the basics, teach students, say, it's okay, kids, you can teach creation, we can teach creation in class if we want. You can even read the Bible to them. Read the Bible story about the creation, and say, students, what do you think?

There's no problem with that whatsoever. Well, if I can be any help, please feel free to give me a call. Honestly, I'm concerned that many teachers do not know what they can and cannot do on this topic, and I would like to answer any questions I can, or steer you to where you can get more information.

The rest of this videotape now will contain an actual presentation that I'm doing at a public school. I speak in public schools frequently. If you'd like me to speak in your public school when I'm in your area, please look at my itinerary on my website, drdino .com, and find out when I'm going to be close to you there, and schedule me to come speak in your public school.

I don't know why, there seems to be some schools that are afraid to have a creationist come in. There's no reason to be afraid, and you certainly can. If I'm unable to come, or schedule doesn't permit, I can certainly give you a list of other people who speak on creation, but I think it's essential that students get the information, that they see, hey, it's okay, I can learn about the Bible in my public school, I can learn about creation in my public school.

So feel free to give us a call, and I hope you enjoy the rest of this video. Well, it would be good of you to join us here on this tape. This will be our public school presentation. My name is Kent Hovind.

I was a high school science teacher for 15 years, and I now travel the country and speak on the subject of creation, evolution, and dinosaurs. I am, without apology, a young earth creationist, but I stick with the scientific aspects.

And for you teachers that are watching this tape, I appreciate you taking time to look at this, and we're going to give the scientific evidence that shows the world is not billions of years old, and dinosaurs did not live millions of years ago.

And teachers need to be informed that they can teach creation science in the classroom if they so choose. In 1987, the Supreme Court passed a landmark decision about the Louisiana law. Louisiana was going to require their teachers to teach creation in the science class.

The Supreme Court struck down that law, but they didn't say you can't teach creation. Supreme Court said this law is unnecessary because teachers already have the right to teach creation if they want.

You have the perfect right in your class, academic freedom, you can teach the creation story as given in the Bible if you'd like. Now you can't try to convert the kid to be a Baptist or Catholic or a Buddhist or something else, but you can certainly give the creation account.

It is very much part of the scientific discussion. Real science looks at all the different options, the different views. How did the world get here? The fact of the matter is, nobody alive today was here when it started.

So any view of creation, be it creation, be it evolution, is going to be religious by nature. I know the subject is controversial and some folks get all bent out of shape over this question, but the problem is they think that creation is religious, and it is, but they think that evolution is science, and it's not.

Evolution is also a religion. And so I speak on this subject all the time across the country. If I can be of any help, if your students have any questions as they watch these tapes, please don't hesitate to call me.

We'll put our phone number and address up on the screen. You can call or write. We have a list of many materials. We have 18 different videotapes as well as audio tapes and books, charts and things that will help clarify the subject.

We talk about carbon dating and how the starlight got here, and if the world is only 6 ,000 years old, how did the light get here from the stars? We cover all that in our video series. I'd be glad to send you a list of those.

If you just call or write, we'll send you a free list of our material. My material is not copyrighted purposely. We encourage you to share it with as many folks as you would like, and thank you for joining us.

Worldview and the Four Questions of Life

Well, it's good to be here today. My name is Kent Hovind from Pensacola, Florida. I was a high school science teacher for 15 years, and now I travel around the country and speak on the subject of creation, evolution and dinosaurs.

Of all the crazy things to do, that's what I do. You say, dinosaurs? Yes. I brought some with me today. You're welcome to play with them when we get done. I need to warn you about a few of them, though.

This one is a Blondosaurus, so you need to talk to her kind of slow. I also have the Styracosaurus. I cannot prove this, but I think that Styracosaurus is probably the dinosaur that invented hairspray.

Just my theory on that. But all my stuff is hands-on. You kids are welcome to play with it. I have all sorts of interesting things, but let me get started here. This is not my wife. Now, this is just a picture of her.

We moved to Pensacola, Florida, early 1989, for her to finish her music degree at Pensacola Christian College. I have three teenagers that are all in high school at this time, and one of them is running the camera up here.

Wave at him there, Ken Andrew. All right, he's running one of the cameras. We're glad to have him with. You know, there are four great questions that man tries to answer in life. These are called your philosophical worldview questions.

How do you view this world? There are basically two options. Either somebody made the world, or nobody made the world. The world made itself. It got here by a long, slow, gradual process called evolution.

There are two competing theories, creation and evolution. Somebody is wrong, seriously wrong, big time wrong. One of them is not correct. And I happen to be a very strong believer in creation. Now, the fact of the matter is, both theories, creation and evolution, both theories are religious.

Neither one is provable scientifically. Some people like to think that creation is religious and evolution is science. No, no, no. They're both religious theories, both religious philosophies. But let's talk about the basic questions of life.

Number one, who am I? Number two, where did I come from? Number three, why am I here? Number four, where am I going when I die? Your answer to these four questions is determined by what we call your world view, the way you view the world.

Either somebody made it, or nobody made it. If nobody made this world, if man is just an accident, a product of evolution, natural blind random chance, then your answer to these four questions is going to be very different than mine.

For instance, who am I? Well, if evolution is true, you're nothing important, you're just a bit of protoplasm that washed up on the beach. How about, where did I come from? Well, if evolution is true, you came from a cosmic burp about 20 billion years ago.

And there is no purpose to life. Why are we here? Hey, if evolution is true, you're only here to have fun. If it feels good, do it. That's the philosophy of humanism. And where do I go when I die? Well, if evolution is true, you just go back to the grave.

You get recycled into a plant or something else. There is no afterlife. But I happen to believe the world was instantly created. And there are some purposes for us to be here, and you better find out what they are.

Repetition, Persuasion, and Cultural Messages

But Adolf Hitler said, if you tell a lie long enough, and loud enough, and often enough, the people will believe it. The secret to getting somebody to believe a lie is constant repetition. Just keep telling them over and over and over, they'll believe it before it's over with.

That's what my two big brothers did with me. I've got two older brothers, Ross and Mark. They're bigger than I, 6 '4". They've always been older than I am. Matter of fact, they still are today. But when I was about 6 or 7 years old, I was raised in East Peoria, Illinois.

I came running into the breakfast table one morning, and I was the first one there for breakfast. And so I got the last banana out of the bowl to put on my cereal. My two big brothers walked in a few minutes later, and they said, hey Kent, is that the last banana?

I said, yep, and I got it. How many of you have an older brother or sister, and you know that wonderful feeling when you finally pull one over on them? They pick on you all your life. That morning, I had them, and I knew it, man.