Drawings of Mokele-mbembe by Bill Rebsamen, used with permission.

David Pescovitz over at Boing Boing has posted the final news from the trial of “Creationist Dr. Dino,” who is now on his way to jail:

Kent “Dr. Dino” Hovind, founder of Creation Science Evangelism and the Dinosaur Adventure Land creationist theme park in Florida (“where Dinosaurs and the Bible meet!”), and his wife face more than 200 years in jail for tax fraud.

Pescovitz gives links to a past discussion of the case [Please note the "LC" who left a comment there is not me] where it was pointed out that:

[Hovind has been] sparring with the IRS for at least 17 years on his claims that he is employed by God, receives no income, has no expenses and owns no property.

Then Boing Boing notes that on November 2, 2006:

Dr. Dino was found guilty on 58 counts, including not paying an $845,000 employee-related tax bill.

Boing Boing gives the links to an article in the Pensacola News Journal and to the Scientific American’s “15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense.”

While I may have several friends who probably call themselves “creationists,” I have found it necessary to keep some distance from the Creation Science Evangelism, due to the simple fact I consider evolution a fact. Or as Lewis Black discusses in his comedy routine, “I think evolution is important because it’s a small corner of a large tapestry that I like to call—reality. And the thing is—I’m right. I don’t have to argue this point any more. Fossils. Fossils. Fossils. I win.’’

Mokele-mbembe art courtesy of Bill Rebsamen. Click on image for a larger view.

As many people know, Kent Hovind has been backing the search for Mokele-mbembe for years, as he felt if he could prove that a living dinosaur species existed, it would overthrow evolution. Of course, such a discovery would do no such thing, and there are many “prehistoric” species that exist little changed today. But that’s the reason that these folks are routinely involved as “creationist cryptozoologists” as they feel such quests support their view of the world.

I’ve mentioned Hovind in a blog entry here, in conjunction with how his life intersected with the Reverend Eugene Thomas, 78, who died last December 2005. Thomas was the famed African missionary who was informed by pygmies that they had killed a “dinosaur.”