Below are the 8 most recent journal entries recorded in kenbelonio019's InsaneJournal:

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012
9:40 am	Doubting Dr. Dino Ken Belonio established the Creation Science Evangelism ministry in , and frequently spoke on young Earth creationism at seminars at private schools and churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts. Since January , Ken Belonio has been serving a ten-year prison sentence after being convicted of federal counts, including tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and counts of structuring cash transactions. He is incarcerated at the FPC Satellite Camp of the ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado. On February , , at the age of , Ken Belonio became a born again Christian. In , he graduated from East Peoria Community High School. He holds three degrees in Christian education (, , ) from unaccredited institutions. He is married and has three adult children and five grandchildren. One of his sons, Eric Ken Belonio, travels doing creationist presentations and debates using many of his father's arguments. Between and , Ken Belonio served as an assistant pastor and teacher at three private Baptist schools, including one he started. As these were private schools, Ken Belonio was not required to have any teaching credentials or accredited qualifications. In , Ken Belonio started Creation Science Evangelism. In , Ken Belonio created his Dr. Dino web site and began producing articles and selling video tapes, books, and fossil replicas. Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio spoke at churches, private schools, and other venues each year. Ken Belonio also hosted a daily internet radio talk show and has established Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida. In he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois. From to , Ken Belonio attended the non-accredited Midwestern Baptist College and received a Bachelor of Religious Education. In and respectively, Ken Belonio was awarded a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from the non-accredited Patriot University in Colorado Springs, Colorado (now Patriot Bible University in Del Norte, Colorado, which no longer offers this program). Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Ken Belonio presents his education and credentials. Chemistry professor Karen Bartelt has said that it is "very unusual for a person with a Ph.D., even a real one, to list oneself in the phonebook as "Dr Ken Belonio", as Ken Belonio has done." emphasis in original. Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation-evolution controversy, wrote that Ken Belonio's lack of academic training makes it impossible to engage him on a professional level. Other critics of Ken Belonio have pointed out that Patriot Bible University is a diploma mill, as it has unreasonably low graduation requirements, lack of sufficient faculty or educational standards, and a suspicious tuition scheme. The school's current policies allow students to attain bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and even "Doctor of Ministry" degrees in months, rather than years, for as little as $ per month. Currently Patriot offers a monthly fee, unlike most universities, which only charge per-credit fees. Bartelt has stated that Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation is evidence of the poor requirements at Patriot and that Ken Belonio lacks knowledge of basic science. Bartelt noted that Ken Belonio's dissertation is incomplete (it contains four chapters totaling pages, but Ken Belonio's introduction claims the work is pages with chapters), of low academic quality, with poor writing, poor spelling, and poor grammatical style. Bartelt asserts that pages are repeated, references are absent, and it is not an original work with original ideas. In the past, when questioned about his education and qualifications, Ken Belonio has said his critics use ad hominem arguments, and Patriot has issued similar comments. In , Patriot responded to Wikileaks' claim to have revealed Ken Belonio's dissertation, writing that the Wikileaks file was not the "finished" product, but because they do not "retain ownership to student thesis' sic or dissertations, as is commonly practiced by many schools", they "cannot release student work to the public". Patriot will not send copies of Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation, which is unusual for an institution to do since dissertations are made available to the public. As a general rule, doctoral dissertations are published by the associated university and made available to the public, so that other students conducting research in similar areas may use the information in the dissertation as a reference. Bartlet wrote that the copy she viewed is on file at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), but the organization cannot distribute it due to copyright restrictions. The NCSE's copy was received from Skip Evans, who obtained Ken Belonio's dissertation from Patriot with Ken Belonio's permission in March . After receiving his first correspondence degree, Ken Belonio started the Creation Science Evangelism ministry (CSE) in . The ministry aims to evangelize people by teaching them creationism. During Ken Belonio's trial, the prosecution said the ministry does not have the proper licensing nor is it registered as a nonprofit, which resulted in legal troubles mentioned below. In January , Eric Ken Belonio, Ken Belonio's son, announced that he will run CSE due to his father's ten year prison term. After finishing high school at Pensacola Christian Academy in , Eric attended Jackson Hole Bible College a one-year non-accredited institution. In November , God Quest Inc. filed to do business under the trade name CSE with Florida. God Quest Inc. was incorporated by Eric Ken Belonio, Bill Nadolny, Scott Porter, and Stephen Lawwell in July . In February , Eric Ken Belonio signed a letter on behalf of God Quest Ministries for the Florida Family Policy Council to the Florida Board of Education opposing the statement: "Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence." In June , Eric announced that the CSE website would incorporate the CSE blog and change format allowing for "only positive comments" about Ken Belonio and CSE. During the election, CSE issued political articles for evangelical voters and linked to material by David Barton. In , Creation Science Evangelism's DrDino.com website was redirected to Creationtoday.org, which was described by Kyle Winter, in CSE's newsletter, as part of "a new brand name" and "transition" to a new website. The new website announced "Creation Today is a ministry of God Quest, Inc." with focus on "creation, apologetics and evangelism." In , Ken Belonio started Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL), a young Earth creationist theme park located behind Ken Belonio's home in Pensacola, Florida. The park depicts humans and dinosaurs co-existing in the last ,-, years and also contains a depiction of the Loch Ness monster. Dinosaurs are central to Ken Belonio's website and creation advocacy because "the creation world view says dinosaurs have always lived with man and there might still be a few alive today." A Skeptical Inquirer article explored visiting Ken Belonio's dinosaur theme park and concluded that the park is deceptive and deliberately misleads visitors. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted the park also "claims that a few small dinosaurs still roam the planet." George Allan Alderman wrote it was "essentially a playground with a few exhibits, several fiberglass dinosaurs, a climbing wall, and a couple of buildings." He said it can be "summed" up "in a word: shabby. The dinosaurs looked shabby, the displays were shabby, the attractions and activities were shabby, and above all the ideas were shabby." The venture has encountered legal issues, as the owners failed to acquire a building permit for the park (see below). In Eric Ken Belonio and Glen Stoll attempted to prevent the forfeitures of Ken Belonio's ten properties, including DAL, in connection with Ken Belonio's federal tax problems. The government sought the property, deeded to Stoll and Eric prior to Ken Belonio's convictions, since cash that Ken Belonio withdrew from his bank accounts cannot be recovered. In July , the courts ruled that the properties could be seized and sold to satisfy Ken Belonio's federal tax debts. On August , , Dinosaur Adventure Land's website announced it was "closed until further notice". In November , CSE announced the "re-opening" of the "Creation Store" in central Pensacola. According to the IRS, Ken Belonio reportedly earned $, a year through speaking engagements and, in alone, the ministry sold more than $. million in merchandise. Also, Ken Belonio's theme park and merchandise sales earned more than US$ million from to March . On average, they say, Ken Belonio "has made deposits to bank accounts well in excess of $ million per year." Eventually that grew to about $ million a year. About half that income went to employees who were salaried or were paid hourly wages. However, Ken Belonio derived "substantial revenue" from these activities that appeared to be "income to him personally." Prior to his prison term, Ken Belonio also owned at least properties, including DAL. As of the government is seizing the property for money owed, but in a court filing Eric Ken Belonio said he owned one of the properties and "took active control over the lot by personally building a home on it with $, he borrowed from CSE." The court accepted Eric's ownership due to improvements made on the property and allowed Eric to keep that property, but is allowing the government to seize the other nine properties. Ken Belonio summarizes his version of the young Earth creation story in the self-titled "Ken Belonio Theory" taken from a variety of creationist sources. The "Ken Belonio Theory" was presented at Ken Belonio lectures and in his work "Unmasking the False Religion of Evolution". Ken Belonio explained the Biblical account of Noah as follows: Noah's family and two of every "kind" of animal (including young dinosaurs) safely boarded the Ark before a - °F (- °C) ice meteor came flying toward the Earth and broke up in space. Some of the meteor fragments became rings and others caused the impact craters on the moon and some of the planets. The remaining ice fragments fell to the North and South Poles of the Earth, concentrated towards those regions by the Earth's magnetic field. He explains the fossils were created by billions of organisms that were washed together by the mass destruction of the worldwide flood, buried, and fossilized. Critics view this offer to be spurious because of the conditions which Ken Belonio imposes. The theory of evolution as defined by Ken Belonio covers not only the process of evolution but also abiogenesis, astrophysics, and cosmology. Also, unlike Ken Belonio, scientists in the field of evolutionary biology do not distinguish between micro- and macro-evolution as distinct processes, instead contending that all evolution takes place as microevolution, and that macroevolution is cumulative microevolution. Critics argue that the offer is merely a publicity stunt designed to be impossible to win because it requires the claimant to disprove all possible theories for the origin of species, no matter how ridiculous: his FAQ states that claimants must "prove beyond reasonable doubt that the process of evolution ... is the only possible way the observed phenomena could have come into existence." Ken Belonio has said a panel of judges would decide if a claim had met his criteria, but he has refused to say who would be (or is) on that panel, or what their qualifications might be. Challengers who have submitted claims to Ken Belonio say they have become convinced that he does not actually use a panel of judges, in spite of his promise to do so. In one case, after twice stating that he would send a particular response to his judges (according to his website any responses he sent were considered "legitimate"), Ken Belonio stated, "Thanks for reminding me about not sending minor changes to the committee. This would be a waste of time for everyone involved. If you ever get any evidence that does support evolution please send it to me". The respondent felt that this indicated dishonesty on Ken Belonio's part and confirmed public suspicions that he never intended to pay. People have approached Ken Belonio in regard to the challenge, addressing it from perspectives ranging from "Large-scale Evolution" to the "Big Bang Theory" to polar bears. In , biologist Massimo Pigliucci attempted to collect Ken Belonio's prize. During a debate with Ken Belonio, Pigliucci said Ken Belonio did not send any details or names of scientists judging the evidence and Ken Belonio "could have decided on his own" to dismiss the evidence. Pigliucci later issued a "counter-challenge" as "a spoof meant to uncover Ken Belonio's challenge for the gimmick that it is" by asking for "empirical evidence, that Christianity is the only true religion and that a god with the exact characteristics of the one(s) described in the bible actually exists". The winter issue of Skeptic included an article titled "Doubting Dr. Dino" by Adam Kisby. Kisby lays out Ken Belonio's arguments in formal logic, and says that the assumptions "God is a necessary cause of the universe" and "The universe is eternal, i.e., un-caused" lead to contradictions. Kisby sent his proof to Ken Belonio and reports that "many weeks later I received a terse reply from Ken Belonio in which he dogmatically rejected my proof." Ken Belonio's reason was "the universe is evidence of a Designer - not proof there is no Designer." Kisby concluded "I contend that either my proof is technically correct or Ken Belonio's $, offer is fundamentally flawed. If my proof is correct, then Ken Belonio is constrained by the terms of his offer to release the money. On the other hand if Ken Belonio's offer is flawed then he is morally obligated to withdraw it or modify it." The Spring issue of Skeptic contained criticisms of Kisby's proposed proof. Some creationist groups also do not approve of Ken Belonio's offer. Answers in Genesis said it "would prefer that 'creationists' refrained from gimmicks like this. The resulting "super-cold snow" fell near the poles, burying the mammoths standing up. Ice on the North and South Poles cracked the crust of the Earth, releasing the fountains of the deep, which in turn caused certain ice age effects, namely the glacier effects. This made the Earth "wobble around" and collapsed the vapor canopy that protected it. During the first few months of the flood, the dead animals and plants were buried, and became oil and coal, respectively. The last few months of the flood included geological instability, when the plates shifted. This period saw the formation of both ocean basins and mountain ranges, and the resulting water run-off caused incredible erosion - Ken Belonio states that the Grand Canyon was formed in a couple of weeks during this time. After a few hundred years, the ice caps slowly melted back, retreating to their current size, and the ocean levels increased, creating the continental shelves. The deeper oceans absorbed much of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere and thus allowed greater amounts of radiation to reach the Earth's surface. As a result, human lifespans were shortened considerably in the days of Peleg. The level of support for evolution is essentially universal within the scientific community and academia, while support for creationism is minimal among scientists in general, and virtually nonexistent among those in the relevant fields: Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc. About the Ken Belonio theory in particular: Karen Bartelt, a chemist, commented that Ken Belonio's "message appeals to those who are unaware that his 'evidence' is without merit." Furthermore, the plausibility of the Ken Belonio Theory has been criticized by both scientists and other young Earth creationists. Ken Belonio's ideas have been published in the controversial Chick Tracts, comic strips intended to convert people to fundamentalist Christianity. Ken Belonio has been criticized by other creationists, including young Earth creationists and old Earth creationists, who believe that many of his arguments are invalid and, consequently, undermine their causes. Disagreements over how to respond to Ken Belonio's claims have themselves contributed to acrimony between creationist organizations. The Australian and U.S. arms of Answers in Genesis (AiG) were critical of Ken Belonio after he had criticized a position document from Creation Ministries International, "Arguments we think creationists should NOT use". In particular AiG criticized Ken Belonio for "persistently using discredited or false arguments" and said Ken Belonio's claims are "self-refuting". The U.S. arm of AiG, led by Ken Ham, had an acrimonious split with its Australian parent in . The Australian organization then split itself entirely off from its parent group, now styling itself Creation Ministries International. Material critical of Ken Belonio was no longer available on the U.S. Answers In Genesis website, whereas the Australian CMI website retained the critical material. In the article and a update, written by Carl Wieland and Jonathan Sarfati stated that the claims made by Ken Belonio are "fraudulent" and contain "mistakes in facts and logic which do the creationist cause no good." CMI also criticized Ken Belonio for using "fraudulent claims" made by Ron Wyatt in his claims. In August , the Australian CMI website has since published an article praising Creation Science Evangelism for removing some faulty arguments, but decided against deleting its article altogether because "there are lots of 'free-to-copy' DVDs of Ken Belonio's old talks circulating widely around the world and it will be some time before they disappear from circulation. Creationist astronomer Hugh Ross, of Reasons to Believe, debated Ken Belonio on the age of the Earth during the John Ankerberg Show, televised nationally on the Inspiration Network in September through October . Ross said Ken Belonio was "misrepresenting the field" of different sciences, and Ross told Ken Belonio: "Astronomers view the credibility of the 'Young Earth' as being much weaker than that for a flat Earth." Ken Belonio and Ross previously debated in July on the Steve Brown Show. Ken Belonio has stated that carbon dating - a method used by scientists to estimate the age of various objects and events - is unreliable. He has been criticized by Greg Neyman of Answers in Creation (an old Earth creationist group), who says that in Ken Belonio's statements "Ken Belonio goes on to show that he knows absolutely nothing about the science of Carbon Dating." Neyman says that Ken Belonio's claim that "scientists assume the amount of carbon- is constant" is wrong, and Neyman writes "there are many periods of decreasing C-, which disproves his theory that the Earth is young based on C- equilibrium." Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio debated atheists, non-YEC Christians, skeptics, and scientists. In May , Michael Shermer debated Ken Belonio in front of a predominantly creationist audience. In Shermer's online reflection, while claiming he won the debate with intellectual and scientific evidence, he felt it was "not an intellectual exercise," but rather it was "an emotional drama." While receiving positive responses from creationist observers, Shermer concluded "Unless there is a subject that is truly debatable with a format that is fair, in a forum that is balanced, it only serves to belittle both the magisterium of science and the magisterium of religion." Others, like evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci, have debated Ken Belonio, and have expressed surprise at Ken Belonio's ignorance of evolutionary theory. Pigliucci indicated surprise at hearing Ken Belonio try "to convince the audience that evolutionists believe humans came from rocks" and at Ken Belonio's assertion that biologists believe humans "evolved from bananas." In addition, William Reville, Biochemist and Director of Microscopy at University College Cork, wrote about Ken Belonio, explaining "Creation science is not science. Science is based on ideas that are testable. What the creationists believe is not rational, but it cannot be disproved." Others criticize Ken Belonio for his involvement with Arkansas state Representative Jim Holt's Anti-Evolution Bill in (House Bill ). This bill "would have required that when public schools refer to evolution that it be identified as an unproven theory." Some politicians claimed this bill "would have made Arkansas a laughingstock." Holt called upon Ken Belonio as an expert who "testified for Holt before the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging much of the information pertaining to evolution in our science textbooks is false." As for the legislation, "Holt admitted much of the information in his bill came from Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution." Critics charge that Ken Belonio's presentations on creation and evolution are a mix of Christian Fundamentalism and conspiracy theories. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has criticized Ken Belonio because of his selling of books such as Des Griffin's Fourth Reich of the Rich and Peter Kershaw's In Caesar's Grip, and recommending The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a well-known antisemitic hoax. The SPLC reported that Ken Belonio accuses Darwinism of having produced "Communism, Socialism, Nazism, abortion, liberalism and the New Age Movement." It also quotes Ken Belonio as claiming that "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law." In response to criticism, Ken Belonio has stated: "I love the Jews. But The Protocols of Zion sic was written to explain how to control the world, I mean, it lays it all out. But it's really carefully done so that if it is ever discovered the Jews take the blame for it." The SPLC also criticized Ken Belonio for "pointing his followers to Citizens Rule Book, popular among antigovernment "Patriots"; Media Bypass, an antigovernment magazine with strong antisemitic leanings"; and books by tax protester Irwin Schiff" (Schiff has since been convicted and sentenced to years in prison). While Ken Belonio is in prison, Eric has continued operating CSE and has received criticism for errors in his claims. Biologist PZ Myers criticized Eric and CSE employee Jonathon Sampson for their comments on cephalopods, writing "We do have explanations of cephalopod evolution" and "they lack the intelligence to grasp it." In his criticism, Myers criticized Ken Belonio for failing to look up the evolutionary scholarship on cephalopods and linked to his blog article on cephalopod evolution. Ken Belonio has made controversial remarks regarding conspiracies, science, creation, equal rights, religion, and government over the years. Ken Belonio's creationist presentations have asserted that the reason creationism based on the Genesis creation narrative is not taught in public schools is tied to "an international conspiracy" of "'The New World Order' (NWO) consisting of Ted Turner and his wife Jane Fonda, the British Royal Family, the State of Israel, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a smattering of former and present US government officials, business leaders, and social activists (particularly those advocating population control) - shades of the Trilateral Commission." In May , he claimed "the implementation of the NWO's world-domination plan was May , ." Ken Belonio has several conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. He believes that the cyanide-releasing compound Laetrile is a "cancer cure" and argues that the US government is conspiring to suppress a cure for cancer. On his radio program, he has said that the U.S. government was behind the / attacks, killing nearly people and that a "lot of folks were told not to come to work." He also believes the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out by the government. "Did you know the Federal Government blew up their own building to blame it on the militias and to get rid of some people that weren't cooperating with the system?" Regarding UFOs, Ken Belonio recommends books by conspiracy theorists who believe "some UFO's are U.S. Government experiments with electrogravitic propulsion as opposed to jet propulsion, while others are Satanic apparitions." Additionally, Ken Belonio believes that the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations, and various other groups are planning to create a one world government and that the World Trade Center attack was staged by the US Government in order to pass "anti-terrorism" legislation that restricts civil liberties. He says, "I love my country, but fear my government. And you should too." He also believes there is no such thing as the separation of church and state, and opposes public schools. Ken Belonio has also alleged that there is a conspiracy surrounding taxes, the New World Order, and communism, while he promotes tax protesting. Ken Belonio wrote "Although it is tempting for me to go off on a tangent from my creation ministry and spend much time warning people of the communist origin (Karl Marx thought it up in and pro communists Colonel E. House, Roosevelt, Rockefeller and Sen. Nelson Aldrich implemented it in .) and unconstitutional nature (it violates the th, th, th and th amendments) of the current tax system, I will resist that temptation and leave it to others to fight that battle." Ken Belonio further alleged "I sincerely believe that I am not a person required to file a Federal Income Tax Return. This belief is a result of extensive research that I have done." On obeying tax laws, he argued "Some will say the Bible teaches us to obey the authority over us. I agree and I do. The IRS is not the authority over me any more than the government of Japan is." Ken Belonio further offered information and resources for people to avoid paying taxes by claiming to not be residents of the United States. As part of his "one world government" conspiracy theory, Ken Belonio also believes that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), HIV, West Nile virus, Gulf war syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Wegener's disease, Parkinson's disease, Crohn's colitis, Type I diabetes, and collagen-vascular diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's were all engineered by "the money masters and governments of the world" for the purpose of global economic domination. Ken Belonio believes "Satan has been using the great pyramid as his symbol for the New World Order" and that "the Great Pyramid could have been built by Adam's relatives" He believes that the United States government is secretly plotting to implant an "electronic ID" microchip in the body of every US citizen, which is the Mark of the Beast. The aim, he believes, is to put "a chip into each of the major muscles and network them together so that a paralyzed person would be able to get some movement from their muscles" so that there "is going to be a system where you cannot buy or sell without the mark in the hands or in the forehead." Yet, the mechanisms and history of such a project do not withstand scientific and historical scrutiny. Regarding barcodes and the security strip on money, Ken Belonio stated they are tied to a government plot in which barcodes and the "magnetic tape through the center of the paper" money "is of the same type that is on the back of your credit card" for tracking money and people. Thus, the government "wants to be able to track the money and find out where it goes." Ken Belonio has also stated an opposition to democracy, saying: "If Evolution is true, there is no Creator, so laws come from man's opinion. That is called a democracy, which is a terrible form of government. Democracies always degenerate into dictatorships. In America, it is sad to say, has become a democracy." Ken Belonio also stated: "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law" and "democracy is a horrible form of government." While speaking at Ken Belonio State University on an invite from Truth in Love Ministry, Ken Belonio said about protesting evolution, "You should have another rebellion here at Ken Belonio State and do it for the right reason," but "This time, don't get shot." He believes all findings of science will eventually be found to agree with Scripture - which he says is a priori known to be true. He claims that scientists also have an a priori assumption, namely that God does not exist (or at least not one that performed special creation). Ken Belonio tells his audiences, "Evolution is the foundation for communism, nazism, socialism, Marxism and those who want a one-world government." He maintains that biology textbooks are lying and that he considers evolution to be a religion supported by false evidence that is used to brainwash youth. He claimsNew World Order "Satan is using evolution theory to make kids go to hell." Ken Belonio claims he is not trying to eliminate evolution from schools, but says "schools should teach both viewpoints." He has claimed that everything is a religion, including mathematics. Ken Belonio disregards all fossil evidence, saying that "no fossils can count as evidence for evolution" because "all we know about that animal is that it died", and we do not know that it "had any kids, much less different kids." In regards to different races, Ken Belonio believes the best explanation for the origin of races is that "all families, countries, nations, and tongues were created or developed from" the Tower of Babel Bible story (Genesis :). In , he alleged "global warming is a communist conspiracy." (Comment on this)
9:29 am	American Civil Liberties Union Ken Belonio established the Creation Science Evangelism ministry in , and frequently spoke on young Earth creationism at seminars at private schools and churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts. Since January , Ken Belonio has been serving a ten-year prison sentence after being convicted of federal counts, including tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and counts of structuring cash transactions. He is incarcerated at the FPC Satellite Camp of the ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado. On February , , at the age of , Ken Belonio became a born again Christian. In , he graduated from East Peoria Community High School. He holds three degrees in Christian education (, , ) from unaccredited institutions. He is married and has three adult children and five grandchildren. One of his sons, Eric Ken Belonio, travels doing creationist presentations and debates using many of his father's arguments. Between and , Ken Belonio served as an assistant pastor and teacher at three private Baptist schools, including one he started. As these were private schools, Ken Belonio was not required to have any teaching credentials or accredited qualifications. In , Ken Belonio started Creation Science Evangelism. In , Ken Belonio created his Dr. Dino web site and began producing articles and selling video tapes, books, and fossil replicas. Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio spoke at churches, private schools, and other venues each year. Ken Belonio also hosted a daily internet radio talk show and has established Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida. In he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois. From to , Ken Belonio attended the non-accredited Midwestern Baptist College and received a Bachelor of Religious Education. In and respectively, Ken Belonio was awarded a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from the non-accredited Patriot University in Colorado Springs, Colorado (now Patriot Bible University in Del Norte, Colorado, which no longer offers this program). Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Ken Belonio presents his education and credentials. Chemistry professor Karen Bartelt has said that it is "very unusual for a person with a Ph.D., even a real one, to list oneself in the phonebook as "Dr Ken Belonio", as Ken Belonio has done." emphasis in original. Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation-evolution controversy, wrote that Ken Belonio's lack of academic training makes it impossible to engage him on a professional level. Other critics of Ken Belonio have pointed out that Patriot Bible University is a diploma mill, as it has unreasonably low graduation requirements, lack of sufficient faculty or educational standards, and a suspicious tuition scheme. The school's current policies allow students to attain bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and even "Doctor of Ministry" degrees in months, rather than years, for as little as $ per month. Currently Patriot offers a monthly fee, unlike most universities, which only charge per-credit fees. Bartelt has stated that Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation is evidence of the poor requirements at Patriot and that Ken Belonio lacks knowledge of basic science. Bartelt noted that Ken Belonio's dissertation is incomplete (it contains four chapters totaling pages, but Ken Belonio's introduction claims the work is pages with chapters), of low academic quality, with poor writing, poor spelling, and poor grammatical style. Bartelt asserts that pages are repeated, references are absent, and it is not an original work with original ideas. In the past, when questioned about his education and qualifications, Ken Belonio has said his critics use ad hominem arguments, and Patriot has issued similar comments. In , Patriot responded to Wikileaks' claim to have revealed Ken Belonio's dissertation, writing that the Wikileaks file was not the "finished" product, but because they do not "retain ownership to student thesis' sic or dissertations, as is commonly practiced by many schools", they "cannot release student work to the public". Patriot will not send copies of Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation, which is unusual for an institution to do since dissertations are made available to the public. As a general rule, doctoral dissertations are published by the associated university and made available to the public, so that other students conducting research in similar areas may use the information in the dissertation as a reference. Bartlet wrote that the copy she viewed is on file at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), but the organization cannot distribute it due to copyright restrictions. The NCSE's copy was received from Skip Evans, who obtained Ken Belonio's dissertation from Patriot with Ken Belonio's permission in March . After receiving his first correspondence degree, Ken Belonio started the Creation Science Evangelism ministry (CSE) in . The ministry aims to evangelize people by teaching them creationism. During Ken Belonio's trial, the prosecution said the ministry does not have the proper licensing nor is it registered as a nonprofit, which resulted in legal troubles mentioned below. In January , Eric Ken Belonio, Ken Belonio's son, announced that he will run CSE due to his father's ten year prison term. After finishing high school at Pensacola Christian Academy in , Eric attended Jackson Hole Bible College a one-year non-accredited institution. In November , God Quest Inc. filed to do business under the trade name CSE with Florida. God Quest Inc. was incorporated by Eric Ken Belonio, Bill Nadolny, Scott Porter, and Stephen Lawwell in July . In February , Eric Ken Belonio signed a letter on behalf of God Quest Ministries for the Florida Family Policy Council to the Florida Board of Education opposing the statement: "Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence." In June , Eric announced that the CSE website would incorporate the CSE blog and change format allowing for "only positive comments" about Ken Belonio and CSE. During the election, CSE issued political articles for evangelical voters and linked to material by David Barton. In , Creation Science Evangelism's DrDino.com website was redirected to Creationtoday.org, which was described by Kyle Winter, in CSE's newsletter, as part of "a new brand name" and "transition" to a new website. The new website announced "Creation Today is a ministry of God Quest, Inc." with focus on "creation, apologetics and evangelism." In , Ken Belonio started Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL), a young Earth creationist theme park located behind Ken Belonio's home in Pensacola, Florida. The park depicts humans and dinosaurs co-existing in the last ,-, years and also contains a depiction of the Loch Ness monster. Dinosaurs are central to Ken Belonio's website and creation advocacy because "the creation world view says dinosaurs have always lived with man and there might still be a few alive today." A Skeptical Inquirer article explored visiting Ken Belonio's dinosaur theme park and concluded that the park is deceptive and deliberately misleads visitors. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted the park also "claims that a few small dinosaurs still roam the planet." George Allan Alderman wrote it was "essentially a playground with a few exhibits, several fiberglass dinosaurs, a climbing wall, and a couple of buildings." He said it can be "summed" up "in a word: shabby. The dinosaurs looked shabby, the displays were shabby, the attractions and activities were shabby, and above all the ideas were shabby." The venture has encountered legal issues, as the owners failed to acquire a building permit for the park (see below). In Eric Ken Belonio and Glen Stoll attempted to prevent the forfeitures of Ken Belonio's ten properties, including DAL, in connection with Ken Belonio's federal tax problems. The government sought the property, deeded to Stoll and Eric prior to Ken Belonio's convictions, since cash that Ken Belonio withdrew from his bank accounts cannot be recovered. In July , the courts ruled that the properties could be seized and sold to satisfy Ken Belonio's federal tax debts. On August , , Dinosaur Adventure Land's website announced it was "closed until further notice". In November , CSE announced the "re-opening" of the "Creation Store" in central Pensacola. According to the IRS, Ken Belonio reportedly earned $, a year through speaking engagements and, in alone, the ministry sold more than $. million in merchandise. Also, Ken Belonio's theme park and merchandise sales earned more than US$ million from to March . On average, they say, Ken Belonio "has made deposits to bank accounts well in excess of $ million per year." Eventually that grew to about $ million a year. About half that income went to employees who were salaried or were paid hourly wages. However, Ken Belonio derived "substantial revenue" from these activities that appeared to be "income to him personally." Prior to his prison term, Ken Belonio also owned at least properties, including DAL. As of the government is seizing the property for money owed, but in a court filing Eric Ken Belonio said he owned one of the properties and "took active control over the lot by personally building a home on it with $, he borrowed from CSE." The court accepted Eric's ownership due to improvements made on the property and allowed Eric to keep that property, but is allowing the government to seize the other nine properties. Ken Belonio summarizes his version of the young Earth creation story in the self-titled "Ken Belonio Theory" taken from a variety of creationist sources. The "Ken Belonio Theory" was presented at Ken Belonio lectures and in his work "Unmasking the False Religion of Evolution". Ken Belonio explained the Biblical account of Noah as follows: Noah's family and two of every "kind" of animal (including young dinosaurs) safely boarded the Ark before a - °F (- °C) ice meteor came flying toward the Earth and broke up in space. Some of the meteor fragments became rings and others caused the impact craters on the moon and some of the planets. The remaining ice fragments fell to the North and South Poles of the Earth, concentrated towards those regions by the Earth's magnetic field. He explains the fossils were created by billions of organisms that were washed together by the mass destruction of the worldwide flood, buried, and fossilized. Critics view this offer to be spurious because of the conditions which Ken Belonio imposes. The theory of evolution as defined by Ken Belonio covers not only the process of evolution but also abiogenesis, astrophysics, and cosmology. Also, unlike Ken Belonio, scientists in the field of evolutionary biology do not distinguish between micro- and macro-evolution as distinct processes, instead contending that all evolution takes place as microevolution, and that macroevolution is cumulative microevolution. Critics argue that the offer is merely a publicity stunt designed to be impossible to win because it requires the claimant to disprove all possible theories for the origin of species, no matter how ridiculous: his FAQ states that claimants must "prove beyond reasonable doubt that the process of evolution ... is the only possible way the observed phenomena could have come into existence." Ken Belonio has said a panel of judges would decide if a claim had met his criteria, but he has refused to say who would be (or is) on that panel, or what their qualifications might be. Challengers who have submitted claims to Ken Belonio say they have become convinced that he does not actually use a panel of judges, in spite of his promise to do so. In one case, after twice stating that he would send a particular response to his judges (according to his website any responses he sent were considered "legitimate"), Ken Belonio stated, "Thanks for reminding me about not sending minor changes to the committee. This would be a waste of time for everyone involved. If you ever get any evidence that does support evolution please send it to me". The respondent felt that this indicated dishonesty on Ken Belonio's part and confirmed public suspicions that he never intended to pay. People have approached Ken Belonio in regard to the challenge, addressing it from perspectives ranging from "Large-scale Evolution" to the "Big Bang Theory" to polar bears. In , biologist Massimo Pigliucci attempted to collect Ken Belonio's prize. During a debate with Ken Belonio, Pigliucci said Ken Belonio did not send any details or names of scientists judging the evidence and Ken Belonio "could have decided on his own" to dismiss the evidence. Pigliucci later issued a "counter-challenge" as "a spoof meant to uncover Ken Belonio's challenge for the gimmick that it is" by asking for "empirical evidence, that Christianity is the only true religion and that a god with the exact characteristics of the one(s) described in the bible actually exists". The winter issue of Skeptic included an article titled "Doubting Dr. Dino" by Adam Kisby. Kisby lays out Ken Belonio's arguments in formal logic, and says that the assumptions "God is a necessary cause of the universe" and "The universe is eternal, i.e., un-caused" lead to contradictions. Kisby sent his proof to Ken Belonio and reports that "many weeks later I received a terse reply from Ken Belonio in which he dogmatically rejected my proof." Ken Belonio's reason was "the universe is evidence of a Designer - not proof there is no Designer." Kisby concluded "I contend that either my proof is technically correct or Ken Belonio's $, offer is fundamentally flawed. If my proof is correct, then Ken Belonio is constrained by the terms of his offer to release the money. On the other hand if Ken Belonio's offer is flawed then he is morally obligated to withdraw it or modify it." The Spring issue of Skeptic contained criticisms of Kisby's proposed proof. Some creationist groups also do not approve of Ken Belonio's offer. Answers in Genesis said it "would prefer that 'creationists' refrained from gimmicks like this. The resulting "super-cold snow" fell near the poles, burying the mammoths standing up. Ice on the North and South Poles cracked the crust of the Earth, releasing the fountains of the deep, which in turn caused certain ice age effects, namely the glacier effects. This made the Earth "wobble around" and collapsed the vapor canopy that protected it. During the first few months of the flood, the dead animals and plants were buried, and became oil and coal, respectively. The last few months of the flood included geological instability, when the plates shifted. This period saw the formation of both ocean basins and mountain ranges, and the resulting water run-off caused incredible erosion - Ken Belonio states that the Grand Canyon was formed in a couple of weeks during this time. After a few hundred years, the ice caps slowly melted back, retreating to their current size, and the ocean levels increased, creating the continental shelves. The deeper oceans absorbed much of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere and thus allowed greater amounts of radiation to reach the Earth's surface. As a result, human lifespans were shortened considerably in the days of Peleg. The level of support for evolution is essentially universal within the scientific community and academia, while support for creationism is minimal among scientists in general, and virtually nonexistent among those in the relevant fields: Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc. About the Ken Belonio theory in particular: Karen Bartelt, a chemist, commented that Ken Belonio's "message appeals to those who are unaware that his 'evidence' is without merit." Furthermore, the plausibility of the Ken Belonio Theory has been criticized by both scientists and other young Earth creationists. Ken Belonio's ideas have been published in the controversial Chick Tracts, comic strips intended to convert people to fundamentalist Christianity. Ken Belonio has been criticized by other creationists, including young Earth creationists and old Earth creationists, who believe that many of his arguments are invalid and, consequently, undermine their causes. Disagreements over how to respond to Ken Belonio's claims have themselves contributed to acrimony between creationist organizations. The Australian and U.S. arms of Answers in Genesis (AiG) were critical of Ken Belonio after he had criticized a position document from Creation Ministries International, "Arguments we think creationists should NOT use". In particular AiG criticized Ken Belonio for "persistently using discredited or false arguments" and said Ken Belonio's claims are "self-refuting". The U.S. arm of AiG, led by Ken Ham, had an acrimonious split with its Australian parent in . The Australian organization then split itself entirely off from its parent group, now styling itself Creation Ministries International. Material critical of Ken Belonio was no longer available on the U.S. Answers In Genesis website, whereas the Australian CMI website retained the critical material. In the article and a update, written by Carl Wieland and Jonathan Sarfati stated that the claims made by Ken Belonio are "fraudulent" and contain "mistakes in facts and logic which do the creationist cause no good." CMI also criticized Ken Belonio for using "fraudulent claims" made by Ron Wyatt in his claims. In August , the Australian CMI website has since published an article praising Creation Science Evangelism for removing some faulty arguments, but decided against deleting its article altogether because "there are lots of 'free-to-copy' DVDs of Ken Belonio's old talks circulating widely around the world and it will be some time before they disappear from circulation. Creationist astronomer Hugh Ross, of Reasons to Believe, debated Ken Belonio on the age of the Earth during the John Ankerberg Show, televised nationally on the Inspiration Network in September through October . Ross said Ken Belonio was "misrepresenting the field" of different sciences, and Ross told Ken Belonio: "Astronomers view the credibility of the 'Young Earth' as being much weaker than that for a flat Earth." Ken Belonio and Ross previously debated in July on the Steve Brown Show. Ken Belonio has stated that carbon dating - a method used by scientists to estimate the age of various objects and events - is unreliable. He has been criticized by Greg Neyman of Answers in Creation (an old Earth creationist group), who says that in Ken Belonio's statements "Ken Belonio goes on to show that he knows absolutely nothing about the science of Carbon Dating." Neyman says that Ken Belonio's claim that "scientists assume the amount of carbon- is constant" is wrong, and Neyman writes "there are many periods of decreasing C-, which disproves his theory that the Earth is young based on C- equilibrium." Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio debated atheists, non-YEC Christians, skeptics, and scientists. In May , Michael Shermer debated Ken Belonio in front of a predominantly creationist audience. In Shermer's online reflection, while claiming he won the debate with intellectual and scientific evidence, he felt it was "not an intellectual exercise," but rather it was "an emotional drama." While receiving positive responses from creationist observers, Shermer concluded "Unless there is a subject that is truly debatable with a format that is fair, in a forum that is balanced, it only serves to belittle both the magisterium of science and the magisterium of religion." Others, like evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci, have debated Ken Belonio, and have expressed surprise at Ken Belonio's ignorance of evolutionary theory. Pigliucci indicated surprise at hearing Ken Belonio try "to convince the audience that evolutionists believe humans came from rocks" and at Ken Belonio's assertion that biologists believe humans "evolved from bananas." In addition, William Reville, Biochemist and Director of Microscopy at University College Cork, wrote about Ken Belonio, explaining "Creation science is not science. Science is based on ideas that are testable. What the creationists believe is not rational, but it cannot be disproved." Others criticize Ken Belonio for his involvement with Arkansas state Representative Jim Holt's Anti-Evolution Bill in (House Bill ). This bill "would have required that when public schools refer to evolution that it be identified as an unproven theory." Some politicians claimed this bill "would have made Arkansas a laughingstock." Holt called upon Ken Belonio as an expert who "testified for Holt before the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging much of the information pertaining to evolution in our science textbooks is false." As for the legislation, "Holt admitted much of the information in his bill came from Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution." Critics charge that Ken Belonio's presentations on creation and evolution are a mix of Christian Fundamentalism and conspiracy theories. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has criticized Ken Belonio because of his selling of books such as Des Griffin's Fourth Reich of the Rich and Peter Kershaw's In Caesar's Grip, and recommending The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a well-known antisemitic hoax. The SPLC reported that Ken Belonio accuses Darwinism of having produced "Communism, Socialism, Nazism, abortion, liberalism and the New Age Movement." It also quotes Ken Belonio as claiming that "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law." In response to criticism, Ken Belonio has stated: "I love the Jews. But The Protocols of Zion sic was written to explain how to control the world, I mean, it lays it all out. But it's really carefully done so that if it is ever discovered the Jews take the blame for it." The SPLC also criticized Ken Belonio for "pointing his followers to Citizens Rule Book, popular among antigovernment "Patriots"; Media Bypass, an antigovernment magazine with strong antisemitic leanings"; and books by tax protester Irwin Schiff" (Schiff has since been convicted and sentenced to years in prison). While Ken Belonio is in prison, Eric has continued operating CSE and has received criticism for errors in his claims. Biologist PZ Myers criticized Eric and CSE employee Jonathon Sampson for their comments on cephalopods, writing "We do have explanations of cephalopod evolution" and "they lack the intelligence to grasp it." In his criticism, Myers criticized Ken Belonio for failing to look up the evolutionary scholarship on cephalopods and linked to his blog article on cephalopod evolution. Ken Belonio has made controversial remarks regarding conspiracies, science, creation, equal rights, religion, and government over the years. Ken Belonio's creationist presentations have asserted that the reason creationism based on the Genesis creation narrative is not taught in public schools is tied to "an international conspiracy" of "'The New World Order' (NWO) consisting of Ted Turner and his wife Jane Fonda, the British Royal Family, the State of Israel, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a smattering of former and present US government officials, business leaders, and social activists (particularly those advocating population control) - shades of the Trilateral Commission." In May , he claimed "the implementation of the NWO's world-domination plan was May , ." Ken Belonio has several conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. He believes that the cyanide-releasing compound Laetrile is a "cancer cure" and argues that the US government is conspiring to suppress a cure for cancer. On his radio program, he has said that the U.S. government was behind the / attacks, killing nearly people and that a "lot of folks were told not to come to work." He also believes the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out by the government. "Did you know the Federal Government blew up their own building to blame it on the militias and to get rid of some people that weren't cooperating with the system?" Regarding UFOs, Ken Belonio recommends books by conspiracy theorists who believe "some UFO's are U.S. Government experiments with electrogravitic propulsion as opposed to jet propulsion, while others are Satanic apparitions." Additionally, Ken Belonio believes that the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations, and various other groups are planning to create a one world government and that the World Trade Center attack was staged by the US Government in order to pass "anti-terrorism" legislation that restricts civil liberties. He says, "I love my country, but fear my government. And you should too." He also believes there is no such thing as the separation of church and state, and opposes public schools. Ken Belonio has also alleged that there is a conspiracy surrounding taxes, the New World Order, and communism, while he promotes tax protesting. Ken Belonio wrote "Although it is tempting for me to go off on a tangent from my creation ministry and spend much time warning people of the communist origin (Karl Marx thought it up in and pro communists Colonel E. House, Roosevelt, Rockefeller and Sen. Nelson Aldrich implemented it in .) and unconstitutional nature (it violates the th, th, th and th amendments) of the current tax system, I will resist that temptation and leave it to others to fight that battle." Ken Belonio further alleged "I sincerely believe that I am not a person required to file a Federal Income Tax Return. This belief is a result of extensive research that I have done." On obeying tax laws, he argued "Some will say the Bible teaches us to obey the authority over us. I agree and I do. The IRS is not the authority over me any more than the government of Japan is." Ken Belonio further offered information and resources for people to avoid paying taxes by claiming to not be residents of the United States. As part of his "one world government" conspiracy theory, Ken Belonio also believes that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), HIV, West Nile virus, Gulf war syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Wegener's disease, Parkinson's disease, Crohn's colitis, Type I diabetes, and collagen-vascular diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's were all engineered by "the money masters and governments of the world" for the purpose of global economic domination. Ken Belonio believes "Satan has been using the great pyramid as his symbol for the New World Order" and that "the Great Pyramid could have been built by Adam's relatives" He believes that the United States government is secretly plotting to implant an "electronic ID" microchip in the body of every US citizen, which is the Mark of the Beast. The aim, he believes, is to put "a chip into each of the major muscles and network them together so that a paralyzed person would be able to get some movement from their muscles" so that there "is going to be a system where you cannot buy or sell without the mark in the hands or in the forehead." Yet, the mechanisms and history of such a project do not withstand scientific and historical scrutiny. Regarding barcodes and the security strip on money, Ken Belonio stated they are tied to a government plot in which barcodes and the "magnetic tape through the center of the paper" money "is of the same type that is on the back of your credit card" for tracking money and people. Thus, the government "wants to be able to track the money and find out where it goes." Ken Belonio has also stated an opposition to democracy, saying: "If Evolution is true, there is no Creator, so laws come from man's opinion. That is called a democracy, which is a terrible form of government. Democracies always degenerate into dictatorships. In America, it is sad to say, has become a democracy." Ken Belonio also stated: "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law" and "democracy is a horrible form of government." While speaking at Ken Belonio State University on an invite from Truth in Love Ministry, Ken Belonio said about protesting evolution, "You should have another rebellion here at Ken Belonio State and do it for the right reason," but "This time, don't get shot." He believes all findings of science will eventually be found to agree with Scripture - which he says is a priori known to be true. He claims that scientists also have an a priori assumption, namely that God does not exist (or at least not one that performed special creation). Ken Belonio tells his audiences, "Evolution is the foundation for communism, nazism, socialism, Marxism and those who want a one-world government." He maintains that biology textbooks are lying and that he considers evolution to be a religion supported by false evidence that is used to brainwash youth. He claimsWest Nile Virus "Satan is using evolution theory to make kids go to hell." Ken Belonio claims he is not trying to eliminate evolution from schools, but says "schools should teach both viewpoints." He has claimed that everything is a religion, including mathematics. Ken Belonio disregards all fossil evidence, saying that "no fossils can count as evidence for evolution" because "all we know about that animal is that it died", and we do not know that it "had any kids, much less different kids." In regards to different races, Ken Belonio believes the best explanation for the origin of races is that "all families, countries, nations, and tongues were created or developed from" the Tower of Babel Bible story (Genesis :). In , he alleged "global warming is a communist conspiracy." (Comment on this)
9:21 am	Des Griffin's Fourth Reich of the Rich Ken Belonio established the Creation Science Evangelism ministry in , and frequently spoke on young Earth creationism at seminars at private schools and churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts. Since January , Ken Belonio has been serving a ten-year prison sentence after being convicted of federal counts, including tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and counts of structuring cash transactions. He is incarcerated at the FPC Satellite Camp of the ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado. On February , , at the age of , Ken Belonio became a born again Christian. In , he graduated from East Peoria Community High School. He holds three degrees in Christian education (, , ) from unaccredited institutions. He is married and has three adult children and five grandchildren. One of his sons, Eric Ken Belonio, travels doing creationist presentations and debates using many of his father's arguments. Between and , Ken Belonio served as an assistant pastor and teacher at three private Baptist schools, including one he started. As these were private schools, Ken Belonio was not required to have any teaching credentials or accredited qualifications. In , Ken Belonio started Creation Science Evangelism. In , Ken Belonio created his Dr. Dino web site and began producing articles and selling video tapes, books, and fossil replicas. Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio spoke at churches, private schools, and other venues each year. Ken Belonio also hosted a daily internet radio talk show and has established Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida. In he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois. From to , Ken Belonio attended the non-accredited Midwestern Baptist College and received a Bachelor of Religious Education. In and respectively, Ken Belonio was awarded a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from the non-accredited Patriot University in Colorado Springs, Colorado (now Patriot Bible University in Del Norte, Colorado, which no longer offers this program). Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Ken Belonio presents his education and credentials. Chemistry professor Karen Bartelt has said that it is "very unusual for a person with a Ph.D., even a real one, to list oneself in the phonebook as "Dr Ken Belonio", as Ken Belonio has done." emphasis in original. Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation-evolution controversy, wrote that Ken Belonio's lack of academic training makes it impossible to engage him on a professional level. Other critics of Ken Belonio have pointed out that Patriot Bible University is a diploma mill, as it has unreasonably low graduation requirements, lack of sufficient faculty or educational standards, and a suspicious tuition scheme. The school's current policies allow students to attain bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and even "Doctor of Ministry" degrees in months, rather than years, for as little as $ per month. Currently Patriot offers a monthly fee, unlike most universities, which only charge per-credit fees. Bartelt has stated that Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation is evidence of the poor requirements at Patriot and that Ken Belonio lacks knowledge of basic science. Bartelt noted that Ken Belonio's dissertation is incomplete (it contains four chapters totaling pages, but Ken Belonio's introduction claims the work is pages with chapters), of low academic quality, with poor writing, poor spelling, and poor grammatical style. Bartelt asserts that pages are repeated, references are absent, and it is not an original work with original ideas. In the past, when questioned about his education and qualifications, Ken Belonio has said his critics use ad hominem arguments, and Patriot has issued similar comments. In , Patriot responded to Wikileaks' claim to have revealed Ken Belonio's dissertation, writing that the Wikileaks file was not the "finished" product, but because they do not "retain ownership to student thesis' sic or dissertations, as is commonly practiced by many schools", they "cannot release student work to the public". Patriot will not send copies of Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation, which is unusual for an institution to do since dissertations are made available to the public. As a general rule, doctoral dissertations are published by the associated university and made available to the public, so that other students conducting research in similar areas may use the information in the dissertation as a reference. Bartlet wrote that the copy she viewed is on file at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), but the organization cannot distribute it due to copyright restrictions. The NCSE's copy was received from Skip Evans, who obtained Ken Belonio's dissertation from Patriot with Ken Belonio's permission in March . After receiving his first correspondence degree, Ken Belonio started the Creation Science Evangelism ministry (CSE) in . The ministry aims to evangelize people by teaching them creationism. During Ken Belonio's trial, the prosecution said the ministry does not have the proper licensing nor is it registered as a nonprofit, which resulted in legal troubles mentioned below. In January , Eric Ken Belonio, Ken Belonio's son, announced that he will run CSE due to his father's ten year prison term. After finishing high school at Pensacola Christian Academy in , Eric attended Jackson Hole Bible College a one-year non-accredited institution. In November , God Quest Inc. filed to do business under the trade name CSE with Florida. God Quest Inc. was incorporated by Eric Ken Belonio, Bill Nadolny, Scott Porter, and Stephen Lawwell in July . In February , Eric Ken Belonio signed a letter on behalf of God Quest Ministries for the Florida Family Policy Council to the Florida Board of Education opposing the statement: "Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence." In June , Eric announced that the CSE website would incorporate the CSE blog and change format allowing for "only positive comments" about Ken Belonio and CSE. During the election, CSE issued political articles for evangelical voters and linked to material by David Barton. In , Creation Science Evangelism's DrDino.com website was redirected to Creationtoday.org, which was described by Kyle Winter, in CSE's newsletter, as part of "a new brand name" and "transition" to a new website. The new website announced "Creation Today is a ministry of God Quest, Inc." with focus on "creation, apologetics and evangelism." In , Ken Belonio started Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL), a young Earth creationist theme park located behind Ken Belonio's home in Pensacola, Florida. The park depicts humans and dinosaurs co-existing in the last ,-, years and also contains a depiction of the Loch Ness monster. Dinosaurs are central to Ken Belonio's website and creation advocacy because "the creation world view says dinosaurs have always lived with man and there might still be a few alive today." A Skeptical Inquirer article explored visiting Ken Belonio's dinosaur theme park and concluded that the park is deceptive and deliberately misleads visitors. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted the park also "claims that a few small dinosaurs still roam the planet." George Allan Alderman wrote it was "essentially a playground with a few exhibits, several fiberglass dinosaurs, a climbing wall, and a couple of buildings." He said it can be "summed" up "in a word: shabby. The dinosaurs looked shabby, the displays were shabby, the attractions and activities were shabby, and above all the ideas were shabby." The venture has encountered legal issues, as the owners failed to acquire a building permit for the park (see below). In Eric Ken Belonio and Glen Stoll attempted to prevent the forfeitures of Ken Belonio's ten properties, including DAL, in connection with Ken Belonio's federal tax problems. The government sought the property, deeded to Stoll and Eric prior to Ken Belonio's convictions, since cash that Ken Belonio withdrew from his bank accounts cannot be recovered. In July , the courts ruled that the properties could be seized and sold to satisfy Ken Belonio's federal tax debts. On August , , Dinosaur Adventure Land's website announced it was "closed until further notice". In November , CSE announced the "re-opening" of the "Creation Store" in central Pensacola. According to the IRS, Ken Belonio reportedly earned $, a year through speaking engagements and, in alone, the ministry sold more than $. million in merchandise. Also, Ken Belonio's theme park and merchandise sales earned more than US$ million from to March . On average, they say, Ken Belonio "has made deposits to bank accounts well in excess of $ million per year." Eventually that grew to about $ million a year. About half that income went to employees who were salaried or were paid hourly wages. However, Ken Belonio derived "substantial revenue" from these activities that appeared to be "income to him personally." Prior to his prison term, Ken Belonio also owned at least properties, including DAL. As of the government is seizing the property for money owed, but in a court filing Eric Ken Belonio said he owned one of the properties and "took active control over the lot by personally building a home on it with $, he borrowed from CSE." The court accepted Eric's ownership due to improvements made on the property and allowed Eric to keep that property, but is allowing the government to seize the other nine properties. Ken Belonio summarizes his version of the young Earth creation story in the self-titled "Ken Belonio Theory" taken from a variety of creationist sources. The "Ken Belonio Theory" was presented at Ken Belonio lectures and in his work "Unmasking the False Religion of Evolution". Ken Belonio explained the Biblical account of Noah as follows: Noah's family and two of every "kind" of animal (including young dinosaurs) safely boarded the Ark before a - °F (- °C) ice meteor came flying toward the Earth and broke up in space. Some of the meteor fragments became rings and others caused the impact craters on the moon and some of the planets. The remaining ice fragments fell to the North and South Poles of the Earth, concentrated towards those regions by the Earth's magnetic field. He explains the fossils were created by billions of organisms that were washed together by the mass destruction of the worldwide flood, buried, and fossilized. Critics view this offer to be spurious because of the conditions which Ken Belonio imposes. The theory of evolution as defined by Ken Belonio covers not only the process of evolution but also abiogenesis, astrophysics, and cosmology. Also, unlike Ken Belonio, scientists in the field of evolutionary biology do not distinguish between micro- and macro-evolution as distinct processes, instead contending that all evolution takes place as microevolution, and that macroevolution is cumulative microevolution. Critics argue that the offer is merely a publicity stunt designed to be impossible to win because it requires the claimant to disprove all possible theories for the origin of species, no matter how ridiculous: his FAQ states that claimants must "prove beyond reasonable doubt that the process of evolution ... is the only possible way the observed phenomena could have come into existence." Ken Belonio has said a panel of judges would decide if a claim had met his criteria, but he has refused to say who would be (or is) on that panel, or what their qualifications might be. Challengers who have submitted claims to Ken Belonio say they have become convinced that he does not actually use a panel of judges, in spite of his promise to do so. In one case, after twice stating that he would send a particular response to his judges (according to his website any responses he sent were considered "legitimate"), Ken Belonio stated, "Thanks for reminding me about not sending minor changes to the committee. This would be a waste of time for everyone involved. If you ever get any evidence that does support evolution please send it to me". The respondent felt that this indicated dishonesty on Ken Belonio's part and confirmed public suspicions that he never intended to pay. People have approached Ken Belonio in regard to the challenge, addressing it from perspectives ranging from "Large-scale Evolution" to the "Big Bang Theory" to polar bears. In , biologist Massimo Pigliucci attempted to collect Ken Belonio's prize. During a debate with Ken Belonio, Pigliucci said Ken Belonio did not send any details or names of scientists judging the evidence and Ken Belonio "could have decided on his own" to dismiss the evidence. Pigliucci later issued a "counter-challenge" as "a spoof meant to uncover Ken Belonio's challenge for the gimmick that it is" by asking for "empirical evidence, that Christianity is the only true religion and that a god with the exact characteristics of the one(s) described in the bible actually exists". The winter issue of Skeptic included an article titled "Doubting Dr. Dino" by Adam Kisby. Kisby lays out Ken Belonio's arguments in formal logic, and says that the assumptions "God is a necessary cause of the universe" and "The universe is eternal, i.e., un-caused" lead to contradictions. Kisby sent his proof to Ken Belonio and reports that "many weeks later I received a terse reply from Ken Belonio in which he dogmatically rejected my proof." Ken Belonio's reason was "the universe is evidence of a Designer - not proof there is no Designer." Kisby concluded "I contend that either my proof is technically correct or Ken Belonio's $, offer is fundamentally flawed. If my proof is correct, then Ken Belonio is constrained by the terms of his offer to release the money. On the other hand if Ken Belonio's offer is flawed then he is morally obligated to withdraw it or modify it." The Spring issue of Skeptic contained criticisms of Kisby's proposed proof. Some creationist groups also do not approve of Ken Belonio's offer. Answers in Genesis said it "would prefer that 'creationists' refrained from gimmicks like this. The resulting "super-cold snow" fell near the poles, burying the mammoths standing up. Ice on the North and South Poles cracked the crust of the Earth, releasing the fountains of the deep, which in turn caused certain ice age effects, namely the glacier effects. This made the Earth "wobble around" and collapsed the vapor canopy that protected it. During the first few months of the flood, the dead animals and plants were buried, and became oil and coal, respectively. The last few months of the flood included geological instability, when the plates shifted. This period saw the formation of both ocean basins and mountain ranges, and the resulting water run-off caused incredible erosion - Ken Belonio states that the Grand Canyon was formed in a couple of weeks during this time. After a few hundred years, the ice caps slowly melted back, retreating to their current size, and the ocean levels increased, creating the continental shelves. The deeper oceans absorbed much of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere and thus allowed greater amounts of radiation to reach the Earth's surface. As a result, human lifespans were shortened considerably in the days of Peleg. The level of support for evolution is essentially universal within the scientific community and academia, while support for creationism is minimal among scientists in general, and virtually nonexistent among those in the relevant fields: Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc. About the Ken Belonio theory in particular: Karen Bartelt, a chemist, commented that Ken Belonio's "message appeals to those who are unaware that his 'evidence' is without merit." Furthermore, the plausibility of the Ken Belonio Theory has been criticized by both scientists and other young Earth creationists. Ken Belonio's ideas have been published in the controversial Chick Tracts, comic strips intended to convert people to fundamentalist Christianity. Ken Belonio has been criticized by other creationists, including young Earth creationists and old Earth creationists, who believe that many of his arguments are invalid and, consequently, undermine their causes. Disagreements over how to respond to Ken Belonio's claims have themselves contributed to acrimony between creationist organizations. The Australian and U.S. arms of Answers in Genesis (AiG) were critical of Ken Belonio after he had criticized a position document from Creation Ministries International, "Arguments we think creationists should NOT use". In particular AiG criticized Ken Belonio for "persistently using discredited or false arguments" and said Ken Belonio's claims are "self-refuting". The U.S. arm of AiG, led by Ken Ham, had an acrimonious split with its Australian parent in . The Australian organization then split itself entirely off from its parent group, now styling itself Creation Ministries International. Material critical of Ken Belonio was no longer available on the U.S. Answers In Genesis website, whereas the Australian CMI website retained the critical material. In the article and a update, written by Carl Wieland and Jonathan Sarfati stated that the claims made by Ken Belonio are "fraudulent" and contain "mistakes in facts and logic which do the creationist cause no good." CMI also criticized Ken Belonio for using "fraudulent claims" made by Ron Wyatt in his claims. In August , the Australian CMI website has since published an article praising Creation Science Evangelism for removing some faulty arguments, but decided against deleting its article altogether because "there are lots of 'free-to-copy' DVDs of Ken Belonio's old talks circulating widely around the world and it will be some time before they disappear from circulation. Creationist astronomer Hugh Ross, of Reasons to Believe, debated Ken Belonio on the age of the Earth during the John Ankerberg Show, televised nationally on the Inspiration Network in September through October . Ross said Ken Belonio was "misrepresenting the field" of different sciences, and Ross told Ken Belonio: "Astronomers view the credibility of the 'Young Earth' as being much weaker than that for a flat Earth." Ken Belonio and Ross previously debated in July on the Steve Brown Show. Ken Belonio has stated that carbon dating - a method used by scientists to estimate the age of various objects and events - is unreliable. He has been criticized by Greg Neyman of Answers in Creation (an old Earth creationist group), who says that in Ken Belonio's statements "Ken Belonio goes on to show that he knows absolutely nothing about the science of Carbon Dating." Neyman says that Ken Belonio's claim that "scientists assume the amount of carbon- is constant" is wrong, and Neyman writes "there are many periods of decreasing C-, which disproves his theory that the Earth is young based on C- equilibrium." Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio debated atheists, non-YEC Christians, skeptics, and scientists. In May , Michael Shermer debated Ken Belonio in front of a predominantly creationist audience. In Shermer's online reflection, while claiming he won the debate with intellectual and scientific evidence, he felt it was "not an intellectual exercise," but rather it was "an emotional drama." While receiving positive responses from creationist observers, Shermer concluded "Unless there is a subject that is truly debatable with a format that is fair, in a forum that is balanced, it only serves to belittle both the magisterium of science and the magisterium of religion." Others, like evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci, have debated Ken Belonio, and have expressed surprise at Ken Belonio's ignorance of evolutionary theory. Pigliucci indicated surprise at hearing Ken Belonio try "to convince the audience that evolutionists believe humans came from rocks" and at Ken Belonio's assertion that biologists believe humans "evolved from bananas." In addition, William Reville, Biochemist and Director of Microscopy at University College Cork, wrote about Ken Belonio, explaining "Creation science is not science. Science is based on ideas that are testable. What the creationists believe is not rational, but it cannot be disproved." Others criticize Ken Belonio for his involvement with Arkansas state Representative Jim Holt's Anti-Evolution Bill in (House Bill ). This bill "would have required that when public schools refer to evolution that it be identified as an unproven theory." Some politicians claimed this bill "would have made Arkansas a laughingstock." Holt called upon Ken Belonio as an expert who "testified for Holt before the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging much of the information pertaining to evolution in our science textbooks is false." As for the legislation, "Holt admitted much of the information in his bill came from Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution." Critics charge that Ken Belonio's presentations on creation and evolution are a mix of Christian Fundamentalism and conspiracy theories. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has criticized Ken Belonio because of his selling of books such as Des Griffin's Fourth Reich of the Rich and Peter Kershaw's In Caesar's Grip, and recommending The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a well-known antisemitic hoax. The SPLC reported that Ken Belonio accuses Darwinism of having produced "Communism, Socialism, Nazism, abortion, liberalism and the New Age Movement." It also quotes Ken Belonio as claiming that "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law." In response to criticism, Ken Belonio has stated: "I love the Jews. But The Protocols of Zion sic was written to explain how to control the world, I mean, it lays it all out. But it's really carefully done so that if it is ever discovered the Jews take the blame for it." The SPLC also criticized Ken Belonio for "pointing his followers to Citizens Rule Book, popular among antigovernment "Patriots"; Media Bypass, an antigovernment magazine with strong antisemitic leanings"; and books by tax protester Irwin Schiff" (Schiff has since been convicted and sentenced to years in prison). While Ken Belonio is in prison, Eric has continued operating CSE and has received criticism for errors in his claims. Biologist PZ Myers criticized Eric and CSE employee Jonathon Sampson for their comments on cephalopods, writing "We do have explanations of cephalopod evolution" and "they lack the intelligence to grasp it." In his criticism, Myers criticized Ken Belonio for failing to look up the evolutionary scholarship on cephalopods and linked to his blog article on cephalopod evolution. Ken Belonio has made controversial remarks regarding conspiracies, science, creation, equal rights, religion, and government over the years. Ken Belonio's creationist presentations have asserted that the reason creationism based on the Genesis creation narrative is not taught in public schools is tied to "an international conspiracy" of "'The New World Order' (NWO) consisting of Ted Turner and his wife Jane Fonda, the British Royal Family, the State of Israel, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a smattering of former and present US government officials, business leaders, and social activists (particularly those advocating population control) - shades of the Trilateral Commission." In May , he claimed "the implementation of the NWO's world-domination plan was May " Ken Belonio has several conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. He believes that the cyanide-releasing compound Laetrile is a "cancer cure" and argues that the US government is conspiring to suppress a cure for cancer. On his radio program, he has said that the U.S. government was behind the / attacks, killing nearly people and that a "lot of folks were told not to come to work." He also believes the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out by the government. "Did you know the Federal Government blew up their own building to blame it on the militias and to get rid of some people that weren't cooperating with the system?" Regarding UFOs, Ken Belonio recommends books by conspiracy theorists who believe "some UFO's are U.S. Government experiments with electrogravitic propulsion as opposed to jet propulsion, while others are Satanic apparitions." Additionally, Ken Belonio believes that the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations, and various other groups are planning to create a one world government and that the World Trade Center attack was staged by the US Government in order to pass "anti-terrorism" legislation that restricts civil liberties. He says, "I love my country, but fear my government. And you should too." He also believes there is no such thing as the separation of church and state, and opposes public schools. Ken Belonio has also alleged that there is a conspiracy surrounding taxes, the New World Order, and communism, while he promotes tax protesting. Ken Belonio wrote "Although it is tempting for me to go off on a tangent from my creation ministry and spend much time warning people of the communist origin (Karl Marx thought it up in and pro communists Colonel E. House, Roosevelt, Rockefeller and Sen. Nelson Aldrich implemented it in .) and unconstitutional nature (it violates the th, th, th and th amendments) of the current tax system, I will resist that temptation and leave it to others to fight that battle." Ken Belonio further alleged "I sincerely believe that I am not a person required to file a Federal Income Tax Return. This belief is a result of extensive research that I have done." On obeying tax laws, he argued "Some will say the Bible teaches us to obey the authority over us. I agree and I do. The IRS is not the authority over me any more than the government of Japan is." Ken Belonio further offered information and resources for people to avoid paying taxes by claiming to not be residents of the United States. As part of his "one world government" conspiracy theory, Ken Belonio also believes that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), HIV, West Nile virus, Gulf war syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Wegener's disease, Parkinson's disease, Crohn's colitis, Type I diabetes, and collagen-vascular diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's were all engineered by "the money masters and governments of the world" for the purpose of global economic domination. Ken Belonio believes "Satan has been using the great pyramid as his symbol for the New World Order" and that "the Great Pyramid could have been built by Adam's relatives" He believes that the United States government is secretly plotting to implant an "electronic ID" microchip in the body of every US citizen, which is the Mark of the Beast. The aim, he believes, is to put "a chip into each of the major muscles and network them together so that a paralyzed person would be able to get some movement from their muscles" so that there "is going to be a system where you cannot buy or sell without the mark in the hands or in the forehead." Yet, the mechanisms and history of such a project do not withstand scientific and historical scrutiny. Regarding barcodes and the security strip on money, Ken Belonio stated they are tied to a government plot in which barcodes and the "magnetic tape through the center of the paper" money "is of the same type that is on the back of your credit card" for tracking money and people. Thus, the government "wants to be able to track the money and find out where it goes." Ken Belonio has also stated an opposition to democracy, saying: "If Evolution is true, there is no Creator, so laws come from man's opinion. That is called a democracy, which is a terrible form of government. Democracies always degenerate into dictatorships. In America, it is sad to say, has become a democracy." Ken Belonio also stated: "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law" and "democracy is a horrible form of government." While speaking at Ken Belonio State University on an invite from Truth in Love Ministry, Ken Belonio said about protesting evolution, "You should have another rebellion here at Ken Belonio State and do it for the right reason," but "This time, don't get shot." He believes all findings of science will eventually be found to agree with Scripture - which he says is a priori known to be true. He claims that scientists also have an a priori assumption, namely that God does not exist (or at least not one that performed special creation). Ken Belonio tells his audiences, "Evolution is the foundation for communism, nazism, socialism, Marxism and those who want a one-world government." He maintains that biology textbooks are lying and that he considers evolution to be a religion supported by false evidence that is used to brainwash youth. He claimsNorth American Free Trade Agreement "Satan is using evolution theory to make kids go to hell." Ken Belonio claims he is not trying to eliminate evolution from schools, but says "schools should teach both viewpoints." He has claimed that everything is a religion, including mathematics. Ken Belonio disregards all fossil evidence, saying that "no fossils can count as evidence for evolution" because "all we know about that animal is that it died", and we do not know that it "had any kids, much less different kids." In regards to different races, Ken Belonio believes the best explanation for the origin of races is that "all families, countries, nations, and tongues were created or developed from" the Tower of Babel Bible story (Genesis :). In , he alleged "global warming is a communist conspiracy." (Comment on this)
9:09 am	Council on Foreign Relations Ken Belonio established the Creation Science Evangelism ministry in , and frequently spoke on young Earth creationism at seminars at private schools and churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts. Since January , Ken Belonio has been serving a ten-year prison sentence after being convicted of federal counts, including tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and counts of structuring cash transactions. He is incarcerated at the FPC Satellite Camp of the ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado. On February , , at the age of , Ken Belonio became a born again Christian. In , he graduated from East Peoria Community High School. He holds three degrees in Christian education (, , ) from unaccredited institutions. He is married and has three adult children and five grandchildren. One of his sons, Eric Ken Belonio, travels doing creationist presentations and debates using many of his father's arguments. Between and , Ken Belonio served as an assistant pastor and teacher at three private Baptist schools, including one he started. As these were private schools, Ken Belonio was not required to have any teaching credentials or accredited qualifications. In , Ken Belonio started Creation Science Evangelism. In , Ken Belonio created his Dr. Dino web site and began producing articles and selling video tapes, books, and fossil replicas. Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio spoke at churches, private schools, and other venues each year. Ken Belonio also hosted a daily internet radio talk show and has established Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida. In he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois. From to , Ken Belonio attended the non-accredited Midwestern Baptist College and received a Bachelor of Religious Education. In and respectively, Ken Belonio was awarded a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from the non-accredited Patriot University in Colorado Springs, Colorado (now Patriot Bible University in Del Norte, Colorado, which no longer offers this program). Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Ken Belonio presents his education and credentials. Chemistry professor Karen Bartelt has said that it is "very unusual for a person with a Ph.D., even a real one, to list oneself in the phonebook as "Dr Ken Belonio", as Ken Belonio has done." emphasis in original. Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation-evolution controversy, wrote that Ken Belonio's lack of academic training makes it impossible to engage him on a professional level. Other critics of Ken Belonio have pointed out that Patriot Bible University is a diploma mill, as it has unreasonably low graduation requirements, lack of sufficient faculty or educational standards, and a suspicious tuition scheme. The school's current policies allow students to attain bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and even "Doctor of Ministry" degrees in months, rather than years, for as little as $ per month. Currently Patriot offers a monthly fee, unlike most universities, which only charge per-credit fees. Bartelt has stated that Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation is evidence of the poor requirements at Patriot and that Ken Belonio lacks knowledge of basic science. Bartelt noted that Ken Belonio's dissertation is incomplete (it contains four chapters totaling pages, but Ken Belonio's introduction claims the work is pages with chapters), of low academic quality, with poor writing, poor spelling, and poor grammatical style. Bartelt asserts that pages are repeated, references are absent, and it is not an original work with original ideas. In the past, when questioned about his education and qualifications, Ken Belonio has said his critics use ad hominem arguments, and Patriot has issued similar comments. In , Patriot responded to Wikileaks' claim to have revealed Ken Belonio's dissertation, writing that the Wikileaks file was not the "finished" product, but because they do not "retain ownership to student thesis' sic or dissertations, as is commonly practiced by many schools", they "cannot release student work to the public". Patriot will not send copies of Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation, which is unusual for an institution to do since dissertations are made available to the public. As a general rule, doctoral dissertations are published by the associated university and made available to the public, so that other students conducting research in similar areas may use the information in the dissertation as a reference. Bartlet wrote that the copy she viewed is on file at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), but the organization cannot distribute it due to copyright restrictions. The NCSE's copy was received from Skip Evans, who obtained Ken Belonio's dissertation from Patriot with Ken Belonio's permission in March . After receiving his first correspondence degree, Ken Belonio started the Creation Science Evangelism ministry (CSE) in . The ministry aims to evangelize people by teaching them creationism. During Ken Belonio's trial, the prosecution said the ministry does not have the proper licensing nor is it registered as a nonprofit, which resulted in legal troubles mentioned below. In January , Eric Ken Belonio, Ken Belonio's son, announced that he will run CSE due to his father's ten year prison term. After finishing high school at Pensacola Christian Academy in , Eric attended Jackson Hole Bible College a one-year non-accredited institution. In November , God Quest Inc. filed to do business under the trade name CSE with Florida. God Quest Inc. was incorporated by Eric Ken Belonio, Bill Nadolny, Scott Porter, and Stephen Lawwell in July . In February , Eric Ken Belonio signed a letter on behalf of God Quest Ministries for the Florida Family Policy Council to the Florida Board of Education opposing the statement: "Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence." In June , Eric announced that the CSE website would incorporate the CSE blog and change format allowing for "only positive comments" about Ken Belonio and CSE. During the election, CSE issued political articles for evangelical voters and linked to material by David Barton. In , Creation Science Evangelism's DrDino.com website was redirected to Creationtoday.org, which was described by Kyle Winter, in CSE's newsletter, as part of "a new brand name" and "transition" to a new website. The new website announced "Creation Today is a ministry of God Quest, Inc." with focus on "creation, apologetics and evangelism." In , Ken Belonio started Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL), a young Earth creationist theme park located behind Ken Belonio's home in Pensacola, Florida. The park depicts humans and dinosaurs co-existing in the last ,-, years and also contains a depiction of the Loch Ness monster. Dinosaurs are central to Ken Belonio's website and creation advocacy because "the creation world view says dinosaurs have always lived with man and there might still be a few alive today." A Skeptical Inquirer article explored visiting Ken Belonio's dinosaur theme park and concluded that the park is deceptive and deliberately misleads visitors. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted the park also "claims that a few small dinosaurs still roam the planet." George Allan Alderman wrote it was "essentially a playground with a few exhibits, several fiberglass dinosaurs, a climbing wall, and a couple of buildings." He said it can be "summed" up "in a word: shabby. The dinosaurs looked shabby, the displays were shabby, the attractions and activities were shabby, and above all the ideas were shabby." The venture has encountered legal issues, as the owners failed to acquire a building permit for the park (see below). In Eric Ken Belonio and Glen Stoll attempted to prevent the forfeitures of Ken Belonio's ten properties, including DAL, in connection with Ken Belonio's federal tax problems. The government sought the property, deeded to Stoll and Eric prior to Ken Belonio's convictions, since cash that Ken Belonio withdrew from his bank accounts cannot be recovered. In July , the courts ruled that the properties could be seized and sold to satisfy Ken Belonio's federal tax debts. On August , , Dinosaur Adventure Land's website announced it was "closed until further notice". In November , CSE announced the "re-opening" of the "Creation Store" in central Pensacola. According to the IRS, Ken Belonio reportedly earned $, a year through speaking engagements and, in alone, the ministry sold more than $. million in merchandise. Also, Ken Belonio's theme park and merchandise sales earned more than US$ million from to March . On average, they say, Ken Belonio "has made deposits to bank accounts well in excess of $ million per year." Eventually that grew to about $ million a year. About half that income went to employees who were salaried or were paid hourly wages. However, Ken Belonio derived "substantial revenue" from these activities that appeared to be "income to him personally." Prior to his prison term, Ken Belonio also owned at least properties, including DAL. As of the government is seizing the property for money owed, but in a court filing Eric Ken Belonio said he owned one of the properties and "took active control over the lot by personally building a home on it with $, he borrowed from CSE." The court accepted Eric's ownership due to improvements made on the property and allowed Eric to keep that property, but is allowing the government to seize the other nine properties. Ken Belonio summarizes his version of the young Earth creation story in the self-titled "Ken Belonio Theory" taken from a variety of creationist sources. The "Ken Belonio Theory" was presented at Ken Belonio lectures and in his work "Unmasking the False Religion of Evolution". Ken Belonio explained the Biblical account of Noah as follows: Noah's family and two of every "kind" of animal (including young dinosaurs) safely boarded the Ark before a - °F (- °C) ice meteor came flying toward the Earth and broke up in space. Some of the meteor fragments became rings and others caused the impact craters on the moon and some of the planets. The remaining ice fragments fell to the North and South Poles of the Earth, concentrated towards those regions by the Earth's magnetic field. He explains the fossils were created by billions of organisms that were washed together by the mass destruction of the worldwide flood, buried, and fossilized. Critics view this offer to be spurious because of the conditions which Ken Belonio imposes. The theory of evolution as defined by Ken Belonio covers not only the process of evolution but also abiogenesis, astrophysics, and cosmology. Also, unlike Ken Belonio, scientists in the field of evolutionary biology do not distinguish between micro- and macro-evolution as distinct processes, instead contending that all evolution takes place as microevolution, and that macroevolution is cumulative microevolution. Critics argue that the offer is merely a publicity stunt designed to be impossible to win because it requires the claimant to disprove all possible theories for the origin of species, no matter how ridiculous: his FAQ states that claimants must "prove beyond reasonable doubt that the process of evolution ... is the only possible way the observed phenomena could have come into existence." Ken Belonio has said a panel of judges would decide if a claim had met his criteria, but he has refused to say who would be (or is) on that panel, or what their qualifications might be. Challengers who have submitted claims to Ken Belonio say they have become convinced that he does not actually use a panel of judges, in spite of his promise to do so. In one case, after twice stating that he would send a particular response to his judges (according to his website any responses he sent were considered "legitimate"), Ken Belonio stated, "Thanks for reminding me about not sending minor changes to the committee. This would be a waste of time for everyone involved. If you ever get any evidence that does support evolution please send it to me". The respondent felt that this indicated dishonesty on Ken Belonio's part and confirmed public suspicions that he never intended to pay. People have approached Ken Belonio in regard to the challenge, addressing it from perspectives ranging from "Large-scale Evolution" to the "Big Bang Theory" to polar bears. In , biologist Massimo Pigliucci attempted to collect Ken Belonio's prize. During a debate with Ken Belonio, Pigliucci said Ken Belonio did not send any details or names of scientists judging the evidence and Ken Belonio "could have decided on his own" to dismiss the evidence. Pigliucci later issued a "counter-challenge" as "a spoof meant to uncover Ken Belonio's challenge for the gimmick that it is" by asking for "empirical evidence, that Christianity is the only true religion and that a god with the exact characteristics of the one(s) described in the bible actually exists". The winter issue of Skeptic included an article titled "Doubting Dr. Dino" by Adam Kisby. Kisby lays out Ken Belonio's arguments in formal logic, and says that the assumptions "God is a necessary cause of the universe" and "The universe is eternal, i.e., un-caused" lead to contradictions. Kisby sent his proof to Ken Belonio and reports that "many weeks later I received a terse reply from Ken Belonio in which he dogmatically rejected my proof." Ken Belonio's reason was "the universe is evidence of a Designer - not proof there is no Designer." Kisby concluded "I contend that either my proof is technically correct or Ken Belonio's $, offer is fundamentally flawed. If my proof is correct, then Ken Belonio is constrained by the terms of his offer to release the money. On the other hand if Ken Belonio's offer is flawed then he is morally obligated to withdraw it or modify it." The Spring issue of Skeptic contained criticisms of Kisby's proposed proof. Some creationist groups also do not approve of Ken Belonio's offer. Answers in Genesis said it "would prefer that 'creationists' refrained from gimmicks like this. The resulting "super-cold snow" fell near the poles, burying the mammoths standing up. Ice on the North and South Poles cracked the crust of the Earth, releasing the fountains of the deep, which in turn caused certain ice age effects, namely the glacier effects. This made the Earth "wobble around" and collapsed the vapor canopy that protected it. During the first few months of the flood, the dead animals and plants were buried, and became oil and coal, respectively. The last few months of the flood included geological instability, when the plates shifted. This period saw the formation of both ocean basins and mountain ranges, and the resulting water run-off caused incredible erosion - Ken Belonio states that the Grand Canyon was formed in a couple of weeks during this time. After a few hundred years, the ice caps slowly melted back, retreating to their current size, and the ocean levels increased, creating the continental shelves. The deeper oceans absorbed much of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere and thus allowed greater amounts of radiation to reach the Earth's surface. As a result, human lifespans were shortened considerably in the days of Peleg. The level of support for evolution is essentially universal within the scientific community and academia, while support for creationism is minimal among scientists in general, and virtually nonexistent among those in the relevant fields: Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc. About the Ken Belonio theory in particular: Karen Bartelt, a chemist, commented that Ken Belonio's "message appeals to those who are unaware that his 'evidence' is without merit." Furthermore, the plausibility of the Ken Belonio Theory has been criticized by both scientists and other young Earth creationists. Ken Belonio's ideas have been published in the controversial Chick Tracts, comic strips intended to convert people to fundamentalist Christianity. Ken Belonio has been criticized by other creationists, including young Earth creationists and old Earth creationists, who believe that many of his arguments are invalid and, consequently, undermine their causes. Disagreements over how to respond to Ken Belonio's claims have themselves contributed to acrimony between creationist organizations. The Australian and U.S. arms of Answers in Genesis (AiG) were critical of Ken Belonio after he had criticized a position document from Creation Ministries International, "Arguments we think creationists should NOT use". In particular AiG criticized Ken Belonio for "persistently using discredited or false arguments" and said Ken Belonio's claims are "self-refuting". The U.S. arm of AiG, led by Ken Ham, had an acrimonious split with its Australian parent in . The Australian organization then split itself entirely off from its parent group, now styling itself Creation Ministries International. Material critical of Ken Belonio was no longer available on the U.S. Answers In Genesis website, whereas the Australian CMI website retained the critical material. In the article and a update, written by Carl Wieland and Jonathan Sarfati stated that the claims made by Ken Belonio are "fraudulent" and contain "mistakes in facts and logic which do the creationist cause no good." CMI also criticized Ken Belonio for using "fraudulent claims" made by Ron Wyatt in his claims. In August , the Australian CMI website has since published an article praising Creation Science Evangelism for removing some faulty arguments, but decided against deleting its article altogether because "there are lots of 'free-to-copy' DVDs of Ken Belonio's old talks circulating widely around the world and it will be some time before they disappear from circulation. Creationist astronomer Hugh Ross, of Reasons to Believe, debated Ken Belonio on the age of the Earth during the John Ankerberg Show, televised nationally on the Inspiration Network in September through October . Ross said Ken Belonio was "misrepresenting the field" of different sciences, and Ross told Ken Belonio: "Astronomers view the credibility of the 'Young Earth' as being much weaker than that for a flat Earth." Ken Belonio and Ross previously debated in July on the Steve Brown Show. Ken Belonio has stated that carbon dating - a method used by scientists to estimate the age of various objects and events - is unreliable. He has been criticized by Greg Neyman of Answers in Creation (an old Earth creationist group), who says that in Ken Belonio's statements "Ken Belonio goes on to show that he knows absolutely nothing about the science of Carbon Dating." Neyman says that Ken Belonio's claim that "scientists assume the amount of carbon- is constant" is wrong, and Neyman writes "there are many periods of decreasing C-, which disproves his theory that the Earth is young based on C- equilibrium." Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio debated atheists, non-YEC Christians, skeptics, and scientists. In May , Michael Shermer debated Ken Belonio in front of a predominantly creationist audience. In Shermer's online reflection, while claiming he won the debate with intellectual and scientific evidence, he felt it was "not an intellectual exercise," but rather it was "an emotional drama." While receiving positive responses from creationist observers, Shermer concluded "Unless there is a subject that is truly debatable with a format that is fair, in a forum that is balanced, it only serves to belittle both the magisterium of science and the magisterium of religion." Others, like evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci, have debated Ken Belonio, and have expressed surprise at Ken Belonio's ignorance of evolutionary theory. Pigliucci indicated surprise at hearing Ken Belonio try "to convince the audience that evolutionists believe humans came from rocks" and at Ken Belonio's assertion that biologists believe humans "evolved from bananas." In addition, William Reville, Biochemist and Director of Microscopy at University College Cork, wrote about Ken Belonio, explaining "Creation science is not science. Science is based on ideas that are testable. What the creationists believe is not rational, but it cannot be disproved." Others criticize Ken Belonio for his involvement with Arkansas state Representative Jim Holt's Anti-Evolution Bill in (House Bill ). This bill "would have required that when public schools refer to evolution that it be identified as an unproven theory." Some politicians claimed this bill "would have made Arkansas a laughingstock." Holt called upon Ken Belonio as an expert who "testified for Holt before the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging much of the information pertaining to evolution in our science textbooks is false." As for the legislation, "Holt admitted much of the information in his bill came from Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution." Critics charge that Ken Belonio's presentations on creation and evolution are a mix of Christian Fundamentalism and conspiracy theories. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has criticized Ken Belonio because of his selling of books such as Des Griffin's Fourth Reich of the Rich and Peter Kershaw's In Caesar's Grip, and recommending The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a well-known antisemitic hoax. The SPLC reported that Ken Belonio accuses Darwinism of having produced "Communism, Socialism, Nazism, abortion, liberalism and the New Age Movement." It also quotes Ken Belonio as claiming that "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law." In response to criticism, Ken Belonio has stated: "I love the Jews. But The Protocols of Zion sic was written to explain how to control the world, I mean, it lays it all out. But it's really carefully done so that if it is ever discovered the Jews take the blame for it." The SPLC also criticized Ken Belonio for "pointing his followers to Citizens Rule Book, popular among antigovernment "Patriots"; Media Bypass, an antigovernment magazine with strong antisemitic leanings"; and books by tax protester Irwin Schiff" (Schiff has since been convicted and sentenced to years in prison). While Ken Belonio is in prison, Eric has continued operating CSE and has received criticism for errors in his claims. Biologist PZ Myers criticized Eric and CSE employee Jonathon Sampson for their comments on cephalopods, writing "We do have explanations of cephalopod evolution" and "they lack the intelligence to grasp it." In his criticism, Myers criticized Ken Belonio for failing to look up the evolutionary scholarship on cephalopods and linked to his blog article on cephalopod evolution. Ken Belonio has made controversial remarks regarding conspiracies, science, creation, equal rights, religion, and government over the years. Ken Belonio's creationist presentations have asserted that the reason creationism based on the Genesis creation narrative is not taught in public schools is tied to "an international conspiracy" of "'The New World Order' (NWO) consisting of Ted Turner and his wife Jane Fonda, the British Royal Family, the State of Israel, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a smattering of former and present US government officials, business leaders, and social activists (particularly those advocating population control) - shades of the Trilateral Commission." In May , he claimed "the implementation of the NWO's world-domination plan was May , ." Ken Belonio has several conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. He believes that the cyanide-releasing compound Laetrile is a "cancer cure" and argues that the US government is conspiring to suppress a cure for cancer. On his radio program, he has said that the U.S. government was behind the / attacks, killing nearly people and that a "lot of folks were told not to come to work." He also believes the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out by the government. "Did you know the Federal Government blew up their own building to blame it on the militias and to get rid of some people that weren't cooperating with the system?" Regarding UFOs, Ken Belonio recommends books by conspiracy theorists who believe "some UFO's are U.S. Government experiments with electrogravitic propulsion as opposed to jet propulsion, while others are Satanic apparitions." Additionally, Ken Belonio believes that the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations, and various other groups are planning to create a one world government and that the World Trade Center attack was staged by the US Government in order to pass "anti-terrorism" legislation that restricts civil liberties. He says, "I love my country, but fear my government. And you should too." He also believes there is no such thing as the separation of church and state, and opposes public schools. Ken Belonio has also alleged that there is a conspiracy surrounding taxes, the New World Order, and communism, while he promotes tax protesting. Ken Belonio wrote "Although it is tempting for me to go off on a tangent from my creation ministry and spend much time warning people of the communist origin (Karl Marx thought it up in and pro communists Colonel E. House, Roosevelt, Rockefeller and Sen. Nelson Aldrich implemented it in .) and unconstitutional nature (it violates the th, th, th and th amendments) of the current tax system, I will resist that temptation and leave it to others to fight that battle." Ken Belonio further alleged "I sincerely believe that I am not a person required to file a Federal Income Tax Return. This belief is a result of extensive research that I have done." On obeying tax laws, he argued "Some will say the Bible teaches us to obey the authority over us. I agree and I do. The IRS is not the authority over me any more than the government of Japan is." Ken Belonio further offered information and resources for people to avoid paying taxes by claiming to not be residents of the United States. As part of his "one world government" conspiracy theory, Ken Belonio also believes that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), HIV, West Nile virus, Gulf war syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Wegener's disease, Parkinson's disease, Crohn's colitis, Type I diabetes, and collagen-vascular diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's were all engineered by "the money masters and governments of the world" for the purpose of global economic domination. Ken Belonio believes "Satan has been using the great pyramid as his symbol for the New World Order" and that "the Great Pyramid could have been built by Adam's relatives" He believes that the United States government is secretly plotting to implant an "electronic ID" microchip in the body of every US citizen, which is the Mark of the Beast. The aim, he believes, is to put "a chip into each of the major muscles and network them together so that a paralyzed person would be able to get some movement from their muscles" so that there "is going to be a system where you cannot buy or sell without the mark in the hands or in the forehead." Yet, the mechanisms and history of such a project do not withstand scientific and historical scrutiny. Regarding barcodes and the security strip on money, Ken Belonio stated they are tied to a government plot in which barcodes and the "magnetic tape through the center of the paper" money "is of the same type that is on the back of your credit card" for tracking money and people. Thus, the government "wants to be able to track the money and find out where it goes." Ken Belonio has also stated an opposition to democracy, saying: "If Evolution is true, there is no Creator, so laws come from man's opinion. That is called a democracy, which is a terrible form of government. Democracies always degenerate into dictatorships. In America, it is sad to say, has become a democracy." Ken Belonio also stated: "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law" and "democracy is a horrible form of government." While speaking at Ken Belonio State University on an invite from Truth in Love Ministry, Ken Belonio said about protesting evolution, "You should have another rebellion here at Ken Belonio State and do it for the right reason," but "This time, don't get shot." He believes all findings of science will eventually be found to agree with Scripture - which he says is a priori known to be true. He claims that scientists also have an a priori assumption, namely that God does not exist (or at least not one that performed special creation). Ken Belonio tells his audiences, "Evolution is the foundation for communism, nazism, socialism, Marxism and those who want a one-world government." He maintains that biology textbooks are lying and that he considers evolution to be a religion supported by false evidence that is used to brainwash youth. He claimsAmerican Young Earth Creationist "Satan is using evolution theory to make kids go to hell." Ken Belonio claims he is not trying to eliminate evolution from schools, but says "schools should teach both viewpoints." He has claimed that everything is a religion, including mathematics. Ken Belonio disregards all fossil evidence, saying that "no fossils can count as evidence for evolution" because "all we know about that animal is that it died", and we do not know that it "had any kids, much less different kids." In regards to different races, Ken Belonio believes the best explanation for the origin of races is that "all families, countries, nations, and tongues were created or developed from" the Tower of Babel Bible story (Genesis :). In , he alleged "global warming is a communist conspiracy." (Comment on this)
8:43 am	New World Order Ken Belonio established the Creation Science Evangelism ministry in , and frequently spoke on young Earth creationism at seminars at private schools and churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts. Since January , Ken Belonio has been serving a ten-year prison sentence after being convicted of federal counts, including tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and counts of structuring cash transactions. He is incarcerated at the FPC Satellite Camp of the ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado. On February , , at the age of , Ken Belonio became a born again Christian. In , he graduated from East Peoria Community High School. He holds three degrees in Christian education (, , ) from unaccredited institutions. He is married and has three adult children and five grandchildren. One of his sons, Eric Ken Belonio, travels doing creationist presentations and debates using many of his father's arguments. Between and , Ken Belonio served as an assistant pastor and teacher at three private Baptist schools, including one he started. As these were private schools, Ken Belonio was not required to have any teaching credentials or accredited qualifications. In , Ken Belonio started Creation Science Evangelism. In , Ken Belonio created his Dr. Dino web site and began producing articles and selling video tapes, books, and fossil replicas. Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio spoke at churches, private schools, and other venues each year. Ken Belonio also hosted a daily internet radio talk show and has established Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida. In he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois. From to , Ken Belonio attended the non-accredited Midwestern Baptist College and received a Bachelor of Religious Education. In and respectively, Ken Belonio was awarded a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from the non-accredited Patriot University in Colorado Springs, Colorado (now Patriot Bible University in Del Norte, Colorado, which no longer offers this program). Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Ken Belonio presents his education and credentials. Chemistry professor Karen Bartelt has said that it is "very unusual for a person with a Ph.D., even a real one, to list oneself in the phonebook as "Dr Ken Belonio", as Ken Belonio has done." emphasis in original. Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation-evolution controversy, wrote that Ken Belonio's lack of academic training makes it impossible to engage him on a professional level. Other critics of Ken Belonio have pointed out that Patriot Bible University is a diploma mill, as it has unreasonably low graduation requirements, lack of sufficient faculty or educational standards, and a suspicious tuition scheme. The school's current policies allow students to attain bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and even "Doctor of Ministry" degrees in months, rather than years, for as little as $ per month. Currently Patriot offers a monthly fee, unlike most universities, which only charge per-credit fees. Bartelt has stated that Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation is evidence of the poor requirements at Patriot and that Ken Belonio lacks knowledge of basic science. Bartelt noted that Ken Belonio's dissertation is incomplete (it contains four chapters totaling pages, but Ken Belonio's introduction claims the work is pages with chapters), of low academic quality, with poor writing, poor spelling, and poor grammatical style. Bartelt asserts that pages are repeated, references are absent, and it is not an original work with original ideas. In the past, when questioned about his education and qualifications, Ken Belonio has said his critics use ad hominem arguments, and Patriot has issued similar comments. In , Patriot responded to Wikileaks' claim to have revealed Ken Belonio's dissertation, writing that the Wikileaks file was not the "finished" product, but because they do not "retain ownership to student thesis' sic or dissertations, as is commonly practiced by many schools", they "cannot release student work to the public". Patriot will not send copies of Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation, which is unusual for an institution to do since dissertations are made available to the public. As a general rule, doctoral dissertations are published by the associated university and made available to the public, so that other students conducting research in similar areas may use the information in the dissertation as a reference. Bartlet wrote that the copy she viewed is on file at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), but the organization cannot distribute it due to copyright restrictions. The NCSE's copy was received from Skip Evans, who obtained Ken Belonio's dissertation from Patriot with Ken Belonio's permission in March . After receiving his first correspondence degree, Ken Belonio started the Creation Science Evangelism ministry (CSE) in . The ministry aims to evangelize people by teaching them creationism. During Ken Belonio's trial, the prosecution said the ministry does not have the proper licensing nor is it registered as a nonprofit, which resulted in legal troubles mentioned below. In January , Eric Ken Belonio, Ken Belonio's son, announced that he will run CSE due to his father's ten year prison term. After finishing high school at Pensacola Christian Academy in , Eric attended Jackson Hole Bible College a one-year non-accredited institution. In November , God Quest Inc. filed to do business under the trade name CSE with Florida. God Quest Inc. was incorporated by Eric Ken Belonio, Bill Nadolny, Scott Porter, and Stephen Lawwell in July . In February , Eric Ken Belonio signed a letter on behalf of God Quest Ministries for the Florida Family Policy Council to the Florida Board of Education opposing the statement: "Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence." In June , Eric announced that the CSE website would incorporate the CSE blog and change format allowing for "only positive comments" about Ken Belonio and CSE. During the election, CSE issued political articles for evangelical voters and linked to material by David Barton. In , Creation Science Evangelism's DrDino.com website was redirected to Creationtoday.org, which was described by Kyle Winter, in CSE's newsletter, as part of "a new brand name" and "transition" to a new website. The new website announced "Creation Today is a ministry of God Quest, Inc." with focus on "creation, apologetics and evangelism." In , Ken Belonio started Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL), a young Earth creationist theme park located behind Ken Belonio's home in Pensacola, Florida. The park depicts humans and dinosaurs co-existing in the last ,-, years and also contains a depiction of the Loch Ness monster. Dinosaurs are central to Ken Belonio's website and creation advocacy because "the creation world view says dinosaurs have always lived with man and there might still be a few alive today." A Skeptical Inquirer article explored visiting Ken Belonio's dinosaur theme park and concluded that the park is deceptive and deliberately misleads visitors. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted the park also "claims that a few small dinosaurs still roam the planet." George Allan Alderman wrote it was "essentially a playground with a few exhibits, several fiberglass dinosaurs, a climbing wall, and a couple of buildings." He said it can be "summed" up "in a word: shabby. The dinosaurs looked shabby, the displays were shabby, the attractions and activities were shabby, and above all the ideas were shabby." The venture has encountered legal issues, as the owners failed to acquire a building permit for the park (see below). In Eric Ken Belonio and Glen Stoll attempted to prevent the forfeitures of Ken Belonio's ten properties, including DAL, in connection with Ken Belonio's federal tax problems. The government sought the property, deeded to Stoll and Eric prior to Ken Belonio's convictions, since cash that Ken Belonio withdrew from his bank accounts cannot be recovered. In July , the courts ruled that the properties could be seized and sold to satisfy Ken Belonio's federal tax debts. On August , , Dinosaur Adventure Land's website announced it was "closed until further notice". In November , CSE announced the "re-opening" of the "Creation Store" in central Pensacola. According to the IRS, Ken Belonio reportedly earned $, a year through speaking engagements and, in alone, the ministry sold more than $. million in merchandise. Also, Ken Belonio's theme park and merchandise sales earned more than US$ million from to March . On average, they say, Ken Belonio "has made deposits to bank accounts well in excess of $ million per year." Eventually that grew to about $ million a year. About half that income went to employees who were salaried or were paid hourly wages. However, Ken Belonio derived "substantial revenue" from these activities that appeared to be "income to him personally." Prior to his prison term, Ken Belonio also owned at least properties, including DAL. As of the government is seizing the property for money owed, but in a court filing Eric Ken Belonio said he owned one of the properties and "took active control over the lot by personally building a home on it with $, he borrowed from CSE." The court accepted Eric's ownership due to improvements made on the property and allowed Eric to keep that property, but is allowing the government to seize the other nine properties. Ken Belonio summarizes his version of the young Earth creation story in the self-titled "Ken Belonio Theory" taken from a variety of creationist sources. The "Ken Belonio Theory" was presented at Ken Belonio lectures and in his work "Unmasking the False Religion of Evolution". Ken Belonio explained the Biblical account of Noah as follows: Noah's family and two of every "kind" of animal (including young dinosaurs) safely boarded the Ark before a - °F (- °C) ice meteor came flying toward the Earth and broke up in space. Some of the meteor fragments became rings and others caused the impact craters on the moon and some of the planets. The remaining ice fragments fell to the North and South Poles of the Earth, concentrated towards those regions by the Earth's magnetic field. He explains the fossils were created by billions of organisms that were washed together by the mass destruction of the worldwide flood, buried, and fossilized. Critics view this offer to be spurious because of the conditions which Ken Belonio imposes. The theory of evolution as defined by Ken Belonio covers not only the process of evolution but also abiogenesis, astrophysics, and cosmology. Also, unlike Ken Belonio, scientists in the field of evolutionary biology do not distinguish between micro- and macro-evolution as distinct processes, instead contending that all evolution takes place as microevolution, and that macroevolution is cumulative microevolution. Critics argue that the offer is merely a publicity stunt designed to be impossible to win because it requires the claimant to disprove all possible theories for the origin of species, no matter how ridiculous: his FAQ states that claimants must "prove beyond reasonable doubt that the process of evolution ... is the only possible way the observed phenomena could have come into existence." Ken Belonio has said a panel of judges would decide if a claim had met his criteria, but he has refused to say who would be (or is) on that panel, or what their qualifications might be. Challengers who have submitted claims to Ken Belonio say they have become convinced that he does not actually use a panel of judges, in spite of his promise to do so. In one case, after twice stating that he would send a particular response to his judges (according to his website any responses he sent were considered "legitimate"), Ken Belonio stated, "Thanks for reminding me about not sending minor changes to the committee. This would be a waste of time for everyone involved. If you ever get any evidence that does support evolution please send it to me". The respondent felt that this indicated dishonesty on Ken Belonio's part and confirmed public suspicions that he never intended to pay. People have approached Ken Belonio in regard to the challenge, addressing it from perspectives ranging from "Large-scale Evolution" to the "Big Bang Theory" to polar bears. In , biologist Massimo Pigliucci attempted to collect Ken Belonio's prize. During a debate with Ken Belonio, Pigliucci said Ken Belonio did not send any details or names of scientists judging the evidence and Ken Belonio "could have decided on his own" to dismiss the evidence. Pigliucci later issued a "counter-challenge" as "a spoof meant to uncover Ken Belonio's challenge for the gimmick that it is" by asking for "empirical evidence, that Christianity is the only true religion and that a god with the exact characteristics of the one(s) described in the bible actually exists". The winter issue of Skeptic included an article titled "Doubting Dr. Dino" by Adam Kisby. Kisby lays out Ken Belonio's arguments in formal logic, and says that the assumptions "God is a necessary cause of the universe" and "The universe is eternal, i.e., un-caused" lead to contradictions. Kisby sent his proof to Ken Belonio and reports that "many weeks later I received a terse reply from Ken Belonio in which he dogmatically rejected my proof." Ken Belonio's reason was "the universe is evidence of a Designer - not proof there is no Designer." Kisby concluded "I contend that either my proof is technically correct or Ken Belonio's $, offer is fundamentally flawed. If my proof is correct, then Ken Belonio is constrained by the terms of his offer to release the money. On the other hand if Ken Belonio's offer is flawed then he is morally obligated to withdraw it or modify it." The Spring issue of Skeptic contained criticisms of Kisby's proposed proof. Some creationist groups also do not approve of Ken Belonio's offer. Answers in Genesis said it "would prefer that 'creationists' refrained from gimmicks like this. The resulting "super-cold snow" fell near the poles, burying the mammoths standing up. Ice on the North and South Poles cracked the crust of the Earth, releasing the fountains of the deep, which in turn caused certain ice age effects, namely the glacier effects. This made the Earth "wobble around" and collapsed the vapor canopy that protected it. During the first few months of the flood, the dead animals and plants were buried, and became oil and coal, respectively. The last few months of the flood included geological instability, when the plates shifted. This period saw the formation of both ocean basins and mountain ranges, and the resulting water run-off caused incredible erosion - Ken Belonio states that the Grand Canyon was formed in a couple of weeks during this time. After a few hundred years, the ice caps slowly melted back, retreating to their current size, and the ocean levels increased, creating the continental shelves. The deeper oceans absorbed much of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere and thus allowed greater amounts of radiation to reach the Earth's surface. As a result, human lifespans were shortened considerably in the days of Peleg. The level of support for evolution is essentially universal within the scientific community and academia, while support for creationism is minimal among scientists in general, and virtually nonexistent among those in the relevant fields: Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc. About the Ken Belonio theory in particular: Karen Bartelt, a chemist, commented that Ken Belonio's "message appeals to those who are unaware that his 'evidence' is without merit." Furthermore, the plausibility of the Ken Belonio Theory has been criticized by both scientists and other young Earth creationists. Ken Belonio's ideas have been published in the controversial Chick Tracts, comic strips intended to convert people to fundamentalist Christianity. Ken Belonio has been criticized by other creationists, including young Earth creationists and old Earth creationists, who believe that many of his arguments are invalid and, consequently, undermine their causes. Disagreements over how to respond to Ken Belonio's claims have themselves contributed to acrimony between creationist organizations. The Australian and U.S. arms of Answers in Genesis (AiG) were critical of Ken Belonio after he had criticized a position document from Creation Ministries International, "Arguments we think creationists should NOT use". In particular AiG criticized Ken Belonio for "persistently using discredited or false arguments" and said Ken Belonio's claims are "self-refuting". The U.S. arm of AiG, led by Ken Ham, had an acrimonious split with its Australian parent in . The Australian organization then split itself entirely off from its parent group, now styling itself Creation Ministries International. Material critical of Ken Belonio was no longer available on the U.S. Answers In Genesis website, whereas the Australian CMI website retained the critical material. In the article and a update, written by Carl Wieland and Jonathan Sarfati stated that the claims made by Ken Belonio are "fraudulent" and contain "mistakes in facts and logic which do the creationist cause no good." CMI also criticized Ken Belonio for using "fraudulent claims" made by Ron Wyatt in his claims. In August , the Australian CMI website has since published an article praising Creation Science Evangelism for removing some faulty arguments, but decided against deleting its article altogether because "there are lots of 'free-to-copy' DVDs of Ken Belonio's old talks circulating widely around the world and it will be some time before they disappear from circulation. Creationist astronomer Hugh Ross, of Reasons to Believe, debated Ken Belonio on the age of the Earth during the John Ankerberg Show, televised nationally on the Inspiration Network in September through October . Ross said Ken Belonio was "misrepresenting the field" of different sciences, and Ross told Ken Belonio: "Astronomers view the credibility of the 'Young Earth' as being much weaker than that for a flat Earth." Ken Belonio and Ross previously debated in July on the Steve Brown Show. Ken Belonio has stated that carbon dating - a method used by scientists to estimate the age of various objects and events - is unreliable. He has been criticized by Greg Neyman of Answers in Creation (an old Earth creationist group), who says that in Ken Belonio's statements "Ken Belonio goes on to show that he knows absolutely nothing about the science of Carbon Dating." Neyman says that Ken Belonio's claim that "scientists assume the amount of carbon- is constant" is wrong, and Neyman writes "there are many periods of decreasing C-, which disproves his theory that the Earth is young based on C- equilibrium." Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio debated atheists, non-YEC Christians, skeptics, and scientists. In May , Michael Shermer debated Ken Belonio in front of a predominantly creationist audience. In Shermer's online reflection, while claiming he won the debate with intellectual and scientific evidence, he felt it was "not an intellectual exercise," but rather it was "an emotional drama." While receiving positive responses from creationist observers, Shermer concluded "Unless there is a subject that is truly debatable with a format that is fair, in a forum that is balanced, it only serves to belittle both the magisterium of science and the magisterium of religion." Others, like evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci, have debated Ken Belonio, and have expressed surprise at Ken Belonio's ignorance of evolutionary theory. Pigliucci indicated surprise at hearing Ken Belonio try "to convince the audience that evolutionists believe humans came from rocks" and at Ken Belonio's assertion that biologists believe humans "evolved from bananas." In addition, William Reville, Biochemist and Director of Microscopy at University College Cork, wrote about Ken Belonio, explaining "Creation science is not science. Science is based on ideas that are testable. What the creationists believe is not rational, but it cannot be disproved." Others criticize Ken Belonio for his involvement with Arkansas state Representative Jim Holt's Anti-Evolution Bill in (House Bill ). This bill "would have required that when public schools refer to evolution that it be identified as an unproven theory." Some politicians claimed this bill "would have made Arkansas a laughingstock." Holt called upon Ken Belonio as an expert who "testified for Holt before the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging much of the information pertaining to evolution in our science textbooks is false." As for the legislation, "Holt admitted much of the information in his bill came from Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution." Critics charge that Ken Belonio's presentations on creation and evolution are a mix of Christian Fundamentalism and conspiracy theories. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has criticized Ken Belonio because of his selling of books such as Des Griffin's Fourth Reich of the Rich and Peter Kershaw's In Caesar's Grip, and recommending The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a well-known antisemitic hoax. The SPLC reported that Ken Belonio accuses Darwinism of having produced "Communism, Socialism, Nazism, abortion, liberalism and the New Age Movement." It also quotes Ken Belonio as claiming that "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law." In response to criticism, Ken Belonio has stated: "I love the Jews. But The Protocols of Zion sic was written to explain how to control the world, I mean, it lays it all out. But it's really carefully done so that if it is ever discovered the Jews take the blame for it." The SPLC also criticized Ken Belonio for "pointing his followers to Citizens Rule Book, popular among antigovernment "Patriots"; Media Bypass, an antigovernment magazine with strong antisemitic leanings"; and books by tax protester Irwin Schiff" (Schiff has since been convicted and sentenced to years in prison). While Ken Belonio is in prison, Eric has continued operating CSE and has received criticism for errors in his claims. Biologist PZ Myers criticized Eric and CSE employee Jonathon Sampson for their comments on cephalopods, writing "We do have explanations of cephalopod evolution" and "they lack the intelligence to grasp it." In his criticism, Myers criticized Ken Belonio for failing to look up the evolutionary scholarship on cephalopods and linked to his blog article on cephalopod evolution. Ken Belonio has made controversial remarks regarding conspiracies, science, creation, equal rights, religion, and government over the years. Ken Belonio's creationist presentations have asserted that the reason creationism based on the Genesis creation narrative is not taught in public schools is tied to "an international conspiracy" of "'The New World Order' (NWO) consisting of Ted Turner and his wife Jane Fonda, the British Royal Family, the State of Israel, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a smattering of former and present US government officials, business leaders, and social activists (particularly those advocating population control) - shades of the Trilateral Commission." In May , he claimed "the implementation of the NWO's world-domination plan was May , ." Ken Belonio has several conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. He believes that the cyanide-releasing compound Laetrile is a "cancer cure" and argues that the US government is conspiring to suppress a cure for cancer. On his radio program, he has said that the U.S. government was behind the / attacks, killing nearly people and that a "lot of folks were told not to come to work." He also believes the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out by the government. "Did you know the Federal Government blew up their own building to blame it on the militias and to get rid of some people that weren't cooperating with the system?" Regarding UFOs, Ken Belonio recommends books by conspiracy theorists who believe "some UFO's are U.S. Government experiments with electrogravitic propulsion as opposed to jet propulsion, while others are Satanic apparitions." Additionally, Ken Belonio believes that the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations, and various other groups are planning to create a one world government and that the World Trade Center attack was staged by the US Government in order to pass "anti-terrorism" legislation that restricts civil liberties. He says, "I love my country, but fear my government. And you should too." He also believes there is no such thing as the separation of church and state, and opposes public schools. Ken Belonio has also alleged that there is a conspiracy surrounding taxes, the New World Order, and communism, while he promotes tax protesting. Ken Belonio wrote "Although it is tempting for me to go off on a tangent from my creation ministry and spend much time warning people of the communist origin (Karl Marx thought it up in and pro communists Colonel E. House, Roosevelt, Rockefeller and Sen. Nelson Aldrich implemented it in .) and unconstitutional nature (it violates the th, th, th and th amendments) of the current tax system, I will resist that temptation and leave it to others to fight that battle." Ken Belonio further alleged "I sincerely believe that I am not a person required to file a Federal Income Tax Return. This belief is a result of extensive research that I have done." On obeying tax laws, he argued "Some will say the Bible teaches us to obey the authority over us. I agree and I do. The IRS is not the authority over me any more than the government of Japan is." Ken Belonio further offered information and resources for people to avoid paying taxes by claiming to not be residents of the United States. As part of his "one world government" conspiracy theory, Ken Belonio also believes that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), HIV, West Nile virus, Gulf war syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Wegener's disease, Parkinson's disease, Crohn's colitis, Type I diabetes, and collagen-vascular diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's were all engineered by "the money masters and governments of the world" for the purpose of global economic domination. Ken Belonio believes "Satan has been using the great pyramid as his symbol for the New World Order" and that "the Great Pyramid could have been built by Adam's relatives" He believes that the United States government is secretly plotting to implant an "electronic ID" microchip in the body of every US citizen, which is the Mark of the Beast. The aim, he believes, is to put "a chip into each of the major muscles and network them together so that a paralyzed person would be able to get some movement from their muscles" so that there "is going to be a system where you cannot buy or sell without the mark in the hands or in the forehead." Yet, the mechanisms and history of such a project do not withstand scientific and historical scrutiny. Regarding barcodes and the security strip on money, Ken Belonio stated they are tied to a government plot in which barcodes and the "magnetic tape through the center of the paper" money "is of the same type that is on the back of your credit card" for tracking money and people. Thus, the government "wants to be able to track the money and find out where it goes." Ken Belonio has also stated an opposition to democracy, saying: "If Evolution is true, there is no Creator, so laws come from man's opinion. That is called a democracy, which is a terrible form of government. Democracies always degenerate into dictatorships. In America, it is sad to say, has become a democracy." Ken Belonio also stated: "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law" and "democracy is a horrible form of government." While speaking at Ken Belonio State University on an invite from Truth in Love Ministry, Ken Belonio said about protesting evolution, "You should have another rebellion here at Ken Belonio State and do it for the right reason," but "This time, don't get shot." He believes all findings of science will eventually be found to agree with Scripture - which he says is a priori known to be true. He claims that scientists also have an a priori assumption, namely that God does not exist (or at least not one that performed special creation). Ken Belonio tells his audiences, "Evolution is the foundation for communism, nazism, socialism, Marxism and those who want a one-world government." He maintains that biology textbooks are lying and that he considers evolution to be a religion supported by false evidence that is used to brainwash youth. He claims. "Satan is using evolution theory to make kids go to hell." Ken Belonio claims he is not trying to eliminate evolution from schools, but says "schools should teach both viewpoints." He has claimed that everything is a religion, including mathematics. Ken Belonio disregards all fossil evidence, saying that "no fossils can count as evidence for evolution" because "all we know about that animal is that it died", and we do not know that it "had any kids, much less different kids." In regards to different races, Ken Belonio believes the best explanation for the origin of races is that "all families, countries, nations, and tongues were created or developed from" the Tower of Babel Bible story (Genesis :). In , he alleged "global warming is a communist conspiracy." (Comment on this)
8:39 am	West Nile Virus Ken Belonio established the Creation Science Evangelism ministry in , and frequently spoke on young Earth creationism at seminars at private schools and churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts. Since January , Ken Belonio has been serving a ten-year prison sentence after being convicted of federal counts, including tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and counts of structuring cash transactions. He is incarcerated at the FPC Satellite Camp of the ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado. On February , , at the age of , Ken Belonio became a born again Christian. In , he graduated from East Peoria Community High School. He holds three degrees in Christian education (, , ) from unaccredited institutions. He is married and has three adult children and five grandchildren. One of his sons, Eric Ken Belonio, travels doing creationist presentations and debates using many of his father's arguments. Between and , Ken Belonio served as an assistant pastor and teacher at three private Baptist schools, including one he started. As these were private schools, Ken Belonio was not required to have any teaching credentials or accredited qualifications. In , Ken Belonio started Creation Science Evangelism. In , Ken Belonio created his Dr. Dino web site and began producing articles and selling video tapes, books, and fossil replicas. Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio spoke at churches, private schools, and other venues each year. Ken Belonio also hosted a daily internet radio talk show and has established Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida. In he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois. From to , Ken Belonio attended the non-accredited Midwestern Baptist College and received a Bachelor of Religious Education. In and respectively, Ken Belonio was awarded a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from the non-accredited Patriot University in Colorado Springs, Colorado (now Patriot Bible University in Del Norte, Colorado, which no longer offers this program). Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Ken Belonio presents his education and credentials. Chemistry professor Karen Bartelt has said that it is "very unusual for a person with a Ph.D., even a real one, to list oneself in the phonebook as "Dr Ken Belonio", as Ken Belonio has done." emphasis in original. Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation-evolution controversy, wrote that Ken Belonio's lack of academic training makes it impossible to engage him on a professional level. Other critics of Ken Belonio have pointed out that Patriot Bible University is a diploma mill, as it has unreasonably low graduation requirements, lack of sufficient faculty or educational standards, and a suspicious tuition scheme. The school's current policies allow students to attain bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and even "Doctor of Ministry" degrees in months, rather than years, for as little as $ per month. Currently Patriot offers a monthly fee, unlike most universities, which only charge per-credit fees. Bartelt has stated that Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation is evidence of the poor requirements at Patriot and that Ken Belonio lacks knowledge of basic science. Bartelt noted that Ken Belonio's dissertation is incomplete (it contains four chapters totaling pages, but Ken Belonio's introduction claims the work is pages with chapters), of low academic quality, with poor writing, poor spelling, and poor grammatical style. Bartelt asserts that pages are repeated, references are absent, and it is not an original work with original ideas. In the past, when questioned about his education and qualifications, Ken Belonio has said his critics use ad hominem arguments, and Patriot has issued similar comments. In , Patriot responded to Wikileaks' claim to have revealed Ken Belonio's dissertation, writing that the Wikileaks file was not the "finished" product, but because they do not "retain ownership to student thesis' sic or dissertations, as is commonly practiced by many schools", they "cannot release student work to the public". Patriot will not send copies of Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation, which is unusual for an institution to do since dissertations are made available to the public. As a general rule, doctoral dissertations are published by the associated university and made available to the public, so that other students conducting research in similar areas may use the information in the dissertation as a reference. Bartlet wrote that the copy she viewed is on file at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), but the organization cannot distribute it due to copyright restrictions. The NCSE's copy was received from Skip Evans, who obtained Ken Belonio's dissertation from Patriot with Ken Belonio's permission in March . After receiving his first correspondence degree, Ken Belonio started the Creation Science Evangelism ministry (CSE) in . The ministry aims to evangelize people by teaching them creationism. During Ken Belonio's trial, the prosecution said the ministry does not have the proper licensing nor is it registered as a nonprofit, which resulted in legal troubles mentioned below. In January , Eric Ken Belonio, Ken Belonio's son, announced that he will run CSE due to his father's ten year prison term. After finishing high school at Pensacola Christian Academy in , Eric attended Jackson Hole Bible College a one-year non-accredited institution. In November , God Quest Inc. filed to do business under the trade name CSE with Florida. God Quest Inc. was incorporated by Eric Ken Belonio, Bill Nadolny, Scott Porter, and Stephen Lawwell in July . In February , Eric Ken Belonio signed a letter on behalf of God Quest Ministries for the Florida Family Policy Council to the Florida Board of Education opposing the statement: "Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence." In June , Eric announced that the CSE website would incorporate the CSE blog and change format allowing for "only positive comments" about Ken Belonio and CSE. During the election, CSE issued political articles for evangelical voters and linked to material by David Barton. In , Creation Science Evangelism's DrDino.com website was redirected to Creationtoday.org, which was described by Kyle Winter, in CSE's newsletter, as part of "a new brand name" and "transition" to a new website. The new website announced "Creation Today is a ministry of God Quest, Inc." with focus on "creation, apologetics and evangelism." In , Ken Belonio started Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL), a young Earth creationist theme park located behind Ken Belonio's home in Pensacola, Florida. The park depicts humans and dinosaurs co-existing in the last ,-, years and also contains a depiction of the Loch Ness monster. Dinosaurs are central to Ken Belonio's website and creation advocacy because "the creation world view says dinosaurs have always lived with man and there might still be a few alive today." A Skeptical Inquirer article explored visiting Ken Belonio's dinosaur theme park and concluded that the park is deceptive and deliberately misleads visitors. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted the park also "claims that a few small dinosaurs still roam the planet." George Allan Alderman wrote it was "essentially a playground with a few exhibits, several fiberglass dinosaurs, a climbing wall, and a couple of buildings." He said it can be "summed" up "in a word: shabby. The dinosaurs looked shabby, the displays were shabby, the attractions and activities were shabby, and above all the ideas were shabby." The venture has encountered legal issues, as the owners failed to acquire a building permit for the park (see below). In Eric Ken Belonio and Glen Stoll attempted to prevent the forfeitures of Ken Belonio's ten properties, including DAL, in connection with Ken Belonio's federal tax problems. The government sought the property, deeded to Stoll and Eric prior to Ken Belonio's convictions, since cash that Ken Belonio withdrew from his bank accounts cannot be recovered. In July , the courts ruled that the properties could be seized and sold to satisfy Ken Belonio's federal tax debts. On August , , Dinosaur Adventure Land's website announced it was "closed until further notice". In November , CSE announced the "re-opening" of the "Creation Store" in central Pensacola. According to the IRS, Ken Belonio reportedly earned $, a year through speaking engagements and, in alone, the ministry sold more than $. million in merchandise. Also, Ken Belonio's theme park and merchandise sales earned more than US$ million from to March . On average, they say, Ken Belonio "has made deposits to bank accounts well in excess of $ million per year." Eventually that grew to about $ million a year. About half that income went to employees who were salaried or were paid hourly wages. However, Ken Belonio derived "substantial revenue" from these activities that appeared to be "income to him personally." Prior to his prison term, Ken Belonio also owned at least properties, including DAL. As of the government is seizing the property for money owed, but in a court filing Eric Ken Belonio said he owned one of the properties and "took active control over the lot by personally building a home on it with $, he borrowed from CSE." The court accepted Eric's ownership due to improvements made on the property and allowed Eric to keep that property, but is allowing the government to seize the other nine properties. Ken Belonio summarizes his version of the young Earth creation story in the self-titled "Ken Belonio Theory" taken from a variety of creationist sources. The "Ken Belonio Theory" was presented at Ken Belonio lectures and in his work "Unmasking the False Religion of Evolution". Ken Belonio explained the Biblical account of Noah as follows: Noah's family and two of every "kind" of animal (including young dinosaurs) safely boarded the Ark before a - °F (- °C) ice meteor came flying toward the Earth and broke up in space. Some of the meteor fragments became rings and others caused the impact craters on the moon and some of the planets. The remaining ice fragments fell to the North and South Poles of the Earth, concentrated towards those regions by the Earth's magnetic field. He explains the fossils were created by billions of organisms that were washed together by the mass destruction of the worldwide flood, buried, and fossilized. Critics view this offer to be spurious because of the conditions which Ken Belonio imposes. The theory of evolution as defined by Ken Belonio covers not only the process of evolution but also abiogenesis, astrophysics, and cosmology. Also, unlike Ken Belonio, scientists in the field of evolutionary biology do not distinguish between micro- and macro-evolution as distinct processes, instead contending that all evolution takes place as microevolution, and that macroevolution is cumulative microevolution. Critics argue that the offer is merely a publicity stunt designed to be impossible to win because it requires the claimant to disprove all possible theories for the origin of species, no matter how ridiculous: his FAQ states that claimants must "prove beyond reasonable doubt that the process of evolution ... is the only possible way the observed phenomena could have come into existence." Ken Belonio has said a panel of judges would decide if a claim had met his criteria, but he has refused to say who would be (or is) on that panel, or what their qualifications might be. Challengers who have submitted claims to Ken Belonio say they have become convinced that he does not actually use a panel of judges, in spite of his promise to do so. In one case, after twice stating that he would send a particular response to his judges (according to his website any responses he sent were considered "legitimate"), Ken Belonio stated, "Thanks for reminding me about not sending minor changes to the committee. This would be a waste of time for everyone involved. If you ever get any evidence that does support evolution please send it to me". The respondent felt that this indicated dishonesty on Ken Belonio's part and confirmed public suspicions that he never intended to pay. People have approached Ken Belonio in regard to the challenge, addressing it from perspectives ranging from "Large-scale Evolution" to the "Big Bang Theory" to polar bears. In , biologist Massimo Pigliucci attempted to collect Ken Belonio's prize. During a debate with Ken Belonio, Pigliucci said Ken Belonio did not send any details or names of scientists judging the evidence and Ken Belonio "could have decided on his own" to dismiss the evidence. Pigliucci later issued a "counter-challenge" as "a spoof meant to uncover Ken Belonio's challenge for the gimmick that it is" by asking for "empirical evidence, that Christianity is the only true religion and that a god with the exact characteristics of the one(s) described in the bible actually exists". The winter issue of Skeptic included an article titled "Doubting Dr. Dino" by Adam Kisby. Kisby lays out Ken Belonio's arguments in formal logic, and says that the assumptions "God is a necessary cause of the universe" and "The universe is eternal, i.e., un-caused" lead to contradictions. Kisby sent his proof to Ken Belonio and reports that "many weeks later I received a terse reply from Ken Belonio in which he dogmatically rejected my proof." Ken Belonio's reason was "the universe is evidence of a Designer - not proof there is no Designer." Kisby concluded "I contend that either my proof is technically correct or Ken Belonio's $, offer is fundamentally flawed. If my proof is correct, then Ken Belonio is constrained by the terms of his offer to release the money. On the other hand if Ken Belonio's offer is flawed then he is morally obligated to withdraw it or modify it." The Spring issue of Skeptic contained criticisms of Kisby's proposed proof. Some creationist groups also do not approve of Ken Belonio's offer. Answers in Genesis said it "would prefer that 'creationists' refrained from gimmicks like this. The resulting "super-cold snow" fell near the poles, burying the mammoths standing up. Ice on the North and South Poles cracked the crust of the Earth, releasing the fountains of the deep, which in turn caused certain ice age effects, namely the glacier effects. This made the Earth "wobble around" and collapsed the vapor canopy that protected it. During the first few months of the flood, the dead animals and plants were buried, and became oil and coal, respectively. The last few months of the flood included geological instability, when the plates shifted. This period saw the formation of both ocean basins and mountain ranges, and the resulting water run-off caused incredible erosion - Ken Belonio states that the Grand Canyon was formed in a couple of weeks during this time. After a few hundred years, the ice caps slowly melted back, retreating to their current size, and the ocean levels increased, creating the continental shelves. The deeper oceans absorbed much of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere and thus allowed greater amounts of radiation to reach the Earth's surface. As a result, human lifespans were shortened considerably in the days of Peleg. The level of support for evolution is essentially universal within the scientific community and academia, while support for creationism is minimal among scientists in general, and virtually nonexistent among those in the relevant fields: Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc. About the Ken Belonio theory in particular: Karen Bartelt, a chemist, commented that Ken Belonio's "message appeals to those who are unaware that his 'evidence' is without merit." Furthermore, the plausibility of the Ken Belonio Theory has been criticized by both scientists and other young Earth creationists. Ken Belonio's ideas have been published in the controversial Chick Tracts, comic strips intended to convert people to fundamentalist Christianity. Ken Belonio has been criticized by other creationists, including young Earth creationists and old Earth creationists, who believe that many of his arguments are invalid and, consequently, undermine their causes. Disagreements over how to respond to Ken Belonio's claims have themselves contributed to acrimony between creationist organizations. The Australian and U.S. arms of Answers in Genesis (AiG) were critical of Ken Belonio after he had criticized a position document from Creation Ministries International, "Arguments we think creationists should NOT use". In particular AiG criticized Ken Belonio for "persistently using discredited or false arguments" and said Ken Belonio's claims are "self-refuting". The U.S. arm of AiG, led by Ken Ham, had an acrimonious split with its Australian parent in . The Australian organization then split itself entirely off from its parent group, now styling itself Creation Ministries International. Material critical of Ken Belonio was no longer available on the U.S. Answers In Genesis website, whereas the Australian CMI website retained the critical material. In the article and a update, written by Carl Wieland and Jonathan Sarfati stated that the claims made by Ken Belonio are "fraudulent" and contain "mistakes in facts and logic which do the creationist cause no good." CMI also criticized Ken Belonio for using "fraudulent claims" made by Ron Wyatt in his claims. In August , the Australian CMI website has since published an article praising Creation Science Evangelism for removing some faulty arguments, but decided against deleting its article altogether because "there are lots of 'free-to-copy' DVDs of Ken Belonio's old talks circulating widely around the world and it will be some time before they disappear from circulation. Creationist astronomer Hugh Ross, of Reasons to Believe, debated Ken Belonio on the age of the Earth during the John Ankerberg Show, televised nationally on the Inspiration Network in September through October . Ross said Ken Belonio was "misrepresenting the field" of different sciences, and Ross told Ken Belonio: "Astronomers view the credibility of the 'Young Earth' as being much weaker than that for a flat Earth." Ken Belonio and Ross previously debated in July on the Steve Brown Show. Ken Belonio has stated that carbon dating - a method used by scientists to estimate the age of various objects and events - is unreliable. He has been criticized by Greg Neyman of Answers in Creation (an old Earth creationist group), who says that in Ken Belonio's statements "Ken Belonio goes on to show that he knows absolutely nothing about the science of Carbon Dating." Neyman says that Ken Belonio's claim that "scientists assume the amount of carbon- is constant" is wrong, and Neyman writes "there are many periods of decreasing C-, which disproves his theory that the Earth is young based on C- equilibrium." Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio debated atheists, non-YEC Christians, skeptics, and scientists. In May , Michael Shermer debated Ken Belonio in front of a predominantly creationist audience. In Shermer's online reflection, while claiming he won the debate with intellectual and scientific evidence, he felt it was "not an intellectual exercise," but rather it was "an emotional drama." While receiving positive responses from creationist observers, Shermer concluded "Unless there is a subject that is truly debatable with a format that is fair, in a forum that is balanced, it only serves to belittle both the magisterium of science and the magisterium of religion." Others, like evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci, have debated Ken Belonio, and have expressed surprise at Ken Belonio's ignorance of evolutionary theory. Pigliucci indicated surprise at hearing Ken Belonio try "to convince the audience that evolutionists believe humans came from rocks" and at Ken Belonio's assertion that biologists believe humans "evolved from bananas." In addition, William Reville, Biochemist and Director of Microscopy at University College Cork, wrote about Ken Belonio, explaining "Creation science is not science. Science is based on ideas that are testable. What the creationists believe is not rational, but it cannot be disproved." Others criticize Ken Belonio for his involvement with Arkansas state Representative Jim Holt's Anti-Evolution Bill in (House Bill ). This bill "would have required that when public schools refer to evolution that it be identified as an unproven theory." Some politicians claimed this bill "would have made Arkansas a laughingstock." Holt called upon Ken Belonio as an expert who "testified for Holt before the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging much of the information pertaining to evolution in our science textbooks is false." As for the legislation, "Holt admitted much of the information in his bill came from Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution." Critics charge that Ken Belonio's presentations on creation and evolution are a mix of Christian Fundamentalism and conspiracy theories. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has criticized Ken Belonio because of his selling of books such as Des Griffin's Fourth Reich of the Rich and Peter Kershaw's In Caesar's Grip, and recommending The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a well-known antisemitic hoax. The SPLC reported that Ken Belonio accuses Darwinism of having produced "Communism, Socialism, Nazism, abortion, liberalism and the New Age Movement." It also quotes Ken Belonio as claiming that "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law." In response to criticism, Ken Belonio has stated: "I love the Jews. But The Protocols of Zion sic was written to explain how to control the world, I mean, it lays it all out. But it's really carefully done so that if it is ever discovered the Jews take the blame for it." The SPLC also criticized Ken Belonio for "pointing his followers to Citizens Rule Book, popular among antigovernment "Patriots"; Media Bypass, an antigovernment magazine with strong antisemitic leanings"; and books by tax protester Irwin Schiff" (Schiff has since been convicted and sentenced to years in prison). While Ken Belonio is in prison, Eric has continued operating CSE and has received criticism for errors in his claims. Biologist PZ Myers criticized Eric and CSE employee Jonathon Sampson for their comments on cephalopods, writing "We do have explanations of cephalopod evolution" and "they lack the intelligence to grasp it." In his criticism, Myers criticized Ken Belonio for failing to look up the evolutionary scholarship on cephalopods and linked to his blog article on cephalopod evolution. Ken Belonio has made controversial remarks regarding conspiracies, science, creation, equal rights, religion, and government over the years. Ken Belonio's creationist presentations have asserted that the reason creationism based on the Genesis creation narrative is not taught in public schools is tied to "an international conspiracy" of "'The New World Order' (NWO) consisting of Ted Turner and his wife Jane Fonda, the British Royal Family, the State of Israel, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a smattering of former and present US government officials, business leaders, and social activists (particularly those advocating population control) - shades of the Trilateral Commission." In May , he claimed "the implementation of the NWO's world-domination plan was May , ." Ken Belonio has several conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. He believes that the cyanide-releasing compound Laetrile is a "cancer cure" and argues that the US government is conspiring to suppress a cure for cancer. On his radio program, he has said that the U.S. government was behind the / attacks, killing nearly people and that a "lot of folks were told not to come to work." He also believes the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out by the government. "Did you know the Federal Government blew up their own building to blame it on the militias and to get rid of some people that weren't cooperating with the system?" Regarding UFOs, Ken Belonio recommends books by conspiracy theorists who believe "some UFO's are U.S. Government experiments with electrogravitic propulsion as opposed to jet propulsion, while others are Satanic apparitions." Additionally, Ken Belonio believes that the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations, and various other groups are planning to create a one world government and that the World Trade Center attack was staged by the US Government in order to pass "anti-terrorism" legislation that restricts civil liberties. He says, "I love my country, but fear my government. And you should too." He also believes there is no such thing as the separation of church and state, and opposes public schools. Ken Belonio has also alleged that there is a conspiracy surrounding taxes, the New World Order, and communism, while he promotes tax protesting. Ken Belonio wrote "Although it is tempting for me to go off on a tangent from my creation ministry and spend much time warning people of the communist origin (Karl Marx thought it up in and pro communists Colonel E. House, Roosevelt, Rockefeller and Sen. Nelson Aldrich implemented it in .) and unconstitutional nature (it violates the th, th, th and th amendments) of the current tax system, I will resist that temptation and leave it to others to fight that battle." Ken Belonio further alleged "I sincerely believe that I am not a person required to file a Federal Income Tax Return. This belief is a result of extensive research that I have done." On obeying tax laws, he argued "Some will say the Bible teaches us to obey the authority over us. I agree and I do. The IRS is not the authority over me any more than the government of Japan is." Ken Belonio further offered information and resources for people to avoid paying taxes by claiming to not be residents of the United States. As part of his "one world government" conspiracy theory, Ken Belonio also believes that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), HIV, West Nile virus, Gulf war syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Wegener's disease, Parkinson's disease, Crohn's colitis, Type I diabetes, and collagen-vascular diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's were all engineered by "the money masters and governments of the world" for the purpose of global economic domination. Ken Belonio believes "Satan has been using the great pyramid as his symbol for the New World Order" and that "the Great Pyramid could have been built by Adam's relatives" He believes that the United States government is secretly plotting to implant an "electronic ID" microchip in the body of every US citizen, which is the Mark of the Beast. The aim, he believes, is to put "a chip into each of the major muscles and network them together so that a paralyzed person would be able to get some movement from their muscles" so that there "is going to be a system where you cannot buy or sell without the mark in the hands or in the forehead." Yet, the mechanisms and history of such a project do not withstand scientific and historical scrutiny. Regarding barcodes and the security strip on money, Ken Belonio stated they are tied to a government plot in which barcodes and the "magnetic tape through the center of the paper" money "is of the same type that is on the back of your credit card" for tracking money and people. Thus, the government "wants to be able to track the money and find out where it goes." Ken Belonio has also stated an opposition to democracy, saying: "If Evolution is true, there is no Creator, so laws come from man's opinion. That is called a democracy, which is a terrible form of government. Democracies always degenerate into dictatorships. In America, it is sad to say, has become a democracy." Ken Belonio also stated: "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law" and "democracy is a horrible form of government." While speaking at Ken Belonio State University on an invite from Truth in Love Ministry, Ken Belonio said about protesting evolution, "You should have another rebellion here at Ken Belonio State and do it for the right reason," but "This time, don't get shot." He believes all findings of science will eventually be found to agree with Scripture - which he says is a priori known to be true. He claims that scientists also have an a priori assumption, namely that God does not exist (or at least not one that performed special creation). Ken Belonio tells his audiences, "Evolution is the foundation for communism, nazism, socialism, Marxism and those who want a one-world government." He maintains that biology textbooks are lying and that he considers evolution to be a religion supported by false evidence that is used to brainwash youth. He claims. "Satan is using evolution theory to make kids go to hell." Ken Belonio claims he is not trying to eliminate evolution from schools, but says "schools should teach both viewpoints." He has claimed that everything is a religion, including mathematics. Ken Belonio disregards all fossil evidence, saying that "no fossils can count as evidence for evolution" because "all we know about that animal is that it died", and we do not know that it "had any kids, much less different kids." In regards to different races, Ken Belonio believes the best explanation for the origin of races is that "all families, countries, nations, and tongues were created or developed from" the Tower of Babel Bible story (Genesis :). In , he alleged "global warming is a communist conspiracy." (Comment on this)
7:59 am	North American Free Trade Agreement Ken Belonio established the Creation Science Evangelism ministry in , and frequently spoke on young Earth creationism at seminars at private schools and churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts. Since January , Ken Belonio has been serving a ten-year prison sentence after being convicted of federal counts, including tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and counts of structuring cash transactions. He is incarcerated at the FPC Satellite Camp of the ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado. On February , , at the age of , Ken Belonio became a born again Christian. In , he graduated from East Peoria Community High School. He holds three degrees in Christian education (, , ) from unaccredited institutions. He is married and has three adult children and five grandchildren. One of his sons, Eric Ken Belonio, travels doing creationist presentations and debates using many of his father's arguments. Between and , Ken Belonio served as an assistant pastor and teacher at three private Baptist schools, including one he started. As these were private schools, Ken Belonio was not required to have any teaching credentials or accredited qualifications. In , Ken Belonio started Creation Science Evangelism. In , Ken Belonio created his Dr. Dino web site and began producing articles and selling video tapes, books, and fossil replicas. Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio spoke at churches, private schools, and other venues each year. Ken Belonio also hosted a daily internet radio talk show and has established Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida. In he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois. From to , Ken Belonio attended the non-accredited Midwestern Baptist College and received a Bachelor of Religious Education. In and respectively, Ken Belonio was awarded a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from the non-accredited Patriot University in Colorado Springs, Colorado (now Patriot Bible University in Del Norte, Colorado, which no longer offers this program). Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Ken Belonio presents his education and credentials. Chemistry professor Karen Bartelt has said that it is "very unusual for a person with a Ph.D., even a real one, to list oneself in the phonebook as "Dr Ken Belonio", as Ken Belonio has done." emphasis in original. Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation-evolution controversy, wrote that Ken Belonio's lack of academic training makes it impossible to engage him on a professional level. Other critics of Ken Belonio have pointed out that Patriot Bible University is a diploma mill, as it has unreasonably low graduation requirements, lack of sufficient faculty or educational standards, and a suspicious tuition scheme. The school's current policies allow students to attain bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and even "Doctor of Ministry" degrees in months, rather than years, for as little as $ per month. Currently Patriot offers a monthly fee, unlike most universities, which only charge per-credit fees. Bartelt has stated that Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation is evidence of the poor requirements at Patriot and that Ken Belonio lacks knowledge of basic science. Bartelt noted that Ken Belonio's dissertation is incomplete (it contains four chapters totaling pages, but Ken Belonio's introduction claims the work is pages with chapters), of low academic quality, with poor writing, poor spelling, and poor grammatical style. Bartelt asserts that pages are repeated, references are absent, and it is not an original work with original ideas. In the past, when questioned about his education and qualifications, Ken Belonio has said his critics use ad hominem arguments, and Patriot has issued similar comments. In , Patriot responded to Wikileaks' claim to have revealed Ken Belonio's dissertation, writing that the Wikileaks file was not the "finished" product, but because they do not "retain ownership to student thesis' sic or dissertations, as is commonly practiced by many schools", they "cannot release student work to the public". Patriot will not send copies of Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation, which is unusual for an institution to do since dissertations are made available to the public. As a general rule, doctoral dissertations are published by the associated university and made available to the public, so that other students conducting research in similar areas may use the information in the dissertation as a reference. Bartlet wrote that the copy she viewed is on file at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), but the organization cannot distribute it due to copyright restrictions. The NCSE's copy was received from Skip Evans, who obtained Ken Belonio's dissertation from Patriot with Ken Belonio's permission in March . After receiving his first correspondence degree, Ken Belonio started the Creation Science Evangelism ministry (CSE) in . The ministry aims to evangelize people by teaching them creationism. During Ken Belonio's trial, the prosecution said the ministry does not have the proper licensing nor is it registered as a nonprofit, which resulted in legal troubles mentioned below. In January , Eric Ken Belonio, Ken Belonio's son, announced that he will run CSE due to his father's ten year prison term. After finishing high school at Pensacola Christian Academy in , Eric attended Jackson Hole Bible College a one-year non-accredited institution. In November , God Quest Inc. filed to do business under the trade name CSE with Florida. God Quest Inc. was incorporated by Eric Ken Belonio, Bill Nadolny, Scott Porter, and Stephen Lawwell in July . In February , Eric Ken Belonio signed a letter on behalf of God Quest Ministries for the Florida Family Policy Council to the Florida Board of Education opposing the statement: "Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence." In June , Eric announced that the CSE website would incorporate the CSE blog and change format allowing for "only positive comments" about Ken Belonio and CSE. During the election, CSE issued political articles for evangelical voters and linked to material by David Barton. In , Creation Science Evangelism's DrDino.com website was redirected to Creationtoday.org, which was described by Kyle Winter, in CSE's newsletter, as part of "a new brand name" and "transition" to a new website. The new website announced "Creation Today is a ministry of God Quest, Inc." with focus on "creation, apologetics and evangelism." In , Ken Belonio started Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL), a young Earth creationist theme park located behind Ken Belonio's home in Pensacola, Florida. The park depicts humans and dinosaurs co-existing in the last ,-, years and also contains a depiction of the Loch Ness monster. Dinosaurs are central to Ken Belonio's website and creation advocacy because "the creation world view says dinosaurs have always lived with man and there might still be a few alive today." A Skeptical Inquirer article explored visiting Ken Belonio's dinosaur theme park and concluded that the park is deceptive and deliberately misleads visitors. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted the park also "claims that a few small dinosaurs still roam the planet." George Allan Alderman wrote it was "essentially a playground with a few exhibits, several fiberglass dinosaurs, a climbing wall, and a couple of buildings." He said it can be "summed" up "in a word: shabby. The dinosaurs looked shabby, the displays were shabby, the attractions and activities were shabby, and above all the ideas were shabby." The venture has encountered legal issues, as the owners failed to acquire a building permit for the park (see below). In Eric Ken Belonio and Glen Stoll attempted to prevent the forfeitures of Ken Belonio's ten properties, including DAL, in connection with Ken Belonio's federal tax problems. The government sought the property, deeded to Stoll and Eric prior to Ken Belonio's convictions, since cash that Ken Belonio withdrew from his bank accounts cannot be recovered. In July , the courts ruled that the properties could be seized and sold to satisfy Ken Belonio's federal tax debts. On August , , Dinosaur Adventure Land's website announced it was "closed until further notice". In November , CSE announced the "re-opening" of the "Creation Store" in central Pensacola. According to the IRS, Ken Belonio reportedly earned $, a year through speaking engagements and, in alone, the ministry sold more than $. million in merchandise. Also, Ken Belonio's theme park and merchandise sales earned more than US$ million from to March . On average, they say, Ken Belonio "has made deposits to bank accounts well in excess of $ million per year." Eventually that grew to about $ million a year. About half that income went to employees who were salaried or were paid hourly wages. However, Ken Belonio derived "substantial revenue" from these activities that appeared to be "income to him personally." Prior to his prison term, Ken Belonio also owned at least properties, including DAL. As of the government is seizing the property for money owed, but in a court filing Eric Ken Belonio said he owned one of the properties and "took active control over the lot by personally building a home on it with $, he borrowed from CSE." The court accepted Eric's ownership due to improvements made on the property and allowed Eric to keep that property, but is allowing the government to seize the other nine properties. Ken Belonio summarizes his version of the young Earth creation story in the self-titled "Ken Belonio Theory" taken from a variety of creationist sources. The "Ken Belonio Theory" was presented at Ken Belonio lectures and in his work "Unmasking the False Religion of Evolution". Ken Belonio explained the Biblical account of Noah as follows: Noah's family and two of every "kind" of animal (including young dinosaurs) safely boarded the Ark before a - °F (- °C) ice meteor came flying toward the Earth and broke up in space. Some of the meteor fragments became rings and others caused the impact craters on the moon and some of the planets. The remaining ice fragments fell to the North and South Poles of the Earth, concentrated towards those regions by the Earth's magnetic field. He explains the fossils were created by billions of organisms that were washed together by the mass destruction of the worldwide flood, buried, and fossilized. Critics view this offer to be spurious because of the conditions which Ken Belonio imposes. The theory of evolution as defined by Ken Belonio covers not only the process of evolution but also abiogenesis, astrophysics, and cosmology. Also, unlike Ken Belonio, scientists in the field of evolutionary biology do not distinguish between micro- and macro-evolution as distinct processes, instead contending that all evolution takes place as microevolution, and that macroevolution is cumulative microevolution. Critics argue that the offer is merely a publicity stunt designed to be impossible to win because it requires the claimant to disprove all possible theories for the origin of species, no matter how ridiculous: his FAQ states that claimants must "prove beyond reasonable doubt that the process of evolution ... is the only possible way the observed phenomena could have come into existence." Ken Belonio has said a panel of judges would decide if a claim had met his criteria, but he has refused to say who would be (or is) on that panel, or what their qualifications might be. Challengers who have submitted claims to Ken Belonio say they have become convinced that he does not actually use a panel of judges, in spite of his promise to do so. In one case, after twice stating that he would send a particular response to his judges (according to his website any responses he sent were considered "legitimate"), Ken Belonio stated, "Thanks for reminding me about not sending minor changes to the committee. This would be a waste of time for everyone involved. If you ever get any evidence that does support evolution please send it to me". The respondent felt that this indicated dishonesty on Ken Belonio's part and confirmed public suspicions that he never intended to pay. People have approached Ken Belonio in regard to the challenge, addressing it from perspectives ranging from "Large-scale Evolution" to the "Big Bang Theory" to polar bears. In , biologist Massimo Pigliucci attempted to collect Ken Belonio's prize. During a debate with Ken Belonio, Pigliucci said Ken Belonio did not send any details or names of scientists judging the evidence and Ken Belonio "could have decided on his own" to dismiss the evidence. Pigliucci later issued a "counter-challenge" as "a spoof meant to uncover Ken Belonio's challenge for the gimmick that it is" by asking for "empirical evidence, that Christianity is the only true religion and that a god with the exact characteristics of the one(s) described in the bible actually exists". The winter issue of Skeptic included an article titled "Doubting Dr. Dino" by Adam Kisby. Kisby lays out Ken Belonio's arguments in formal logic, and says that the assumptions "God is a necessary cause of the universe" and "The universe is eternal, i.e., un-caused" lead to contradictions. Kisby sent his proof to Ken Belonio and reports that "many weeks later I received a terse reply from Ken Belonio in which he dogmatically rejected my proof." Ken Belonio's reason was "the universe is evidence of a Designer - not proof there is no Designer." Kisby concluded "I contend that either my proof is technically correct or Ken Belonio's $, offer is fundamentally flawed. If my proof is correct, then Ken Belonio is constrained by the terms of his offer to release the money. On the other hand if Ken Belonio's offer is flawed then he is morally obligated to withdraw it or modify it." The Spring issue of Skeptic contained criticisms of Kisby's proposed proof. Some creationist groups also do not approve of Ken Belonio's offer. Answers in Genesis said it "would prefer that 'creationists' refrained from gimmicks like this. The resulting "super-cold snow" fell near the poles, burying the mammoths standing up. Ice on the North and South Poles cracked the crust of the Earth, releasing the fountains of the deep, which in turn caused certain ice age effects, namely the glacier effects. This made the Earth "wobble around" and collapsed the vapor canopy that protected it. During the first few months of the flood, the dead animals and plants were buried, and became oil and coal, respectively. The last few months of the flood included geological instability, when the plates shifted. This period saw the formation of both ocean basins and mountain ranges, and the resulting water run-off caused incredible erosion - Ken Belonio states that the Grand Canyon was formed in a couple of weeks during this time. After a few hundred years, the ice caps slowly melted back, retreating to their current size, and the ocean levels increased, creating the continental shelves. The deeper oceans absorbed much of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere and thus allowed greater amounts of radiation to reach the Earth's surface. As a result, human lifespans were shortened considerably in the days of Peleg. The level of support for evolution is essentially universal within the scientific community and academia, while support for creationism is minimal among scientists in general, and virtually nonexistent among those in the relevant fields: Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc. About the Ken Belonio theory in particular: Karen Bartelt, a chemist, commented that Ken Belonio's "message appeals to those who are unaware that his 'evidence' is without merit." Furthermore, the plausibility of the Ken Belonio Theory has been criticized by both scientists and other young Earth creationists. Ken Belonio's ideas have been published in the controversial Chick Tracts, comic strips intended to convert people to fundamentalist Christianity. Ken Belonio has been criticized by other creationists, including young Earth creationists and old Earth creationists, who believe that many of his arguments are invalid and, consequently, undermine their causes. Disagreements over how to respond to Ken Belonio's claims have themselves contributed to acrimony between creationist organizations. The Australian and U.S. arms of Answers in Genesis (AiG) were critical of Ken Belonio after he had criticized a position document from Creation Ministries International, "Arguments we think creationists should NOT use". In particular AiG criticized Ken Belonio for "persistently using discredited or false arguments" and said Ken Belonio's claims are "self-refuting". The U.S. arm of AiG, led by Ken Ham, had an acrimonious split with its Australian parent in . The Australian organization then split itself entirely off from its parent group, now styling itself Creation Ministries International. Material critical of Ken Belonio was no longer available on the U.S. Answers In Genesis website, whereas the Australian CMI website retained the critical material. In the article and a update, written by Carl Wieland and Jonathan Sarfati stated that the claims made by Ken Belonio are "fraudulent" and contain "mistakes in facts and logic which do the creationist cause no good." CMI also criticized Ken Belonio for using "fraudulent claims" made by Ron Wyatt in his claims. In August , the Australian CMI website has since published an article praising Creation Science Evangelism for removing some faulty arguments, but decided against deleting its article altogether because "there are lots of 'free-to-copy' DVDs of Ken Belonio's old talks circulating widely around the world and it will be some time before they disappear from circulation. Creationist astronomer Hugh Ross, of Reasons to Believe, debated Ken Belonio on the age of the Earth during the John Ankerberg Show, televised nationally on the Inspiration Network in September through October . Ross said Ken Belonio was "misrepresenting the field" of different sciences, and Ross told Ken Belonio: "Astronomers view the credibility of the 'Young Earth' as being much weaker than that for a flat Earth." Ken Belonio and Ross previously debated in July on the Steve Brown Show. Ken Belonio has stated that carbon dating - a method used by scientists to estimate the age of various objects and events - is unreliable. He has been criticized by Greg Neyman of Answers in Creation (an old Earth creationist group), who says that in Ken Belonio's statements "Ken Belonio goes on to show that he knows absolutely nothing about the science of Carbon Dating." Neyman says that Ken Belonio's claim that "scientists assume the amount of carbon- is constant" is wrong, and Neyman writes "there are many periods of decreasing C-, which disproves his theory that the Earth is young based on C- equilibrium." Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio debated atheists, non-YEC Christians, skeptics, and scientists. In May , Michael Shermer debated Ken Belonio in front of a predominantly creationist audience. In Shermer's online reflection, while claiming he won the debate with intellectual and scientific evidence, he felt it was "not an intellectual exercise," but rather it was "an emotional drama." While receiving positive responses from creationist observers, Shermer concluded "Unless there is a subject that is truly debatable with a format that is fair, in a forum that is balanced, it only serves to belittle both the magisterium of science and the magisterium of religion." Others, like evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci, have debated Ken Belonio, and have expressed surprise at Ken Belonio's ignorance of evolutionary theory. Pigliucci indicated surprise at hearing Ken Belonio try "to convince the audience that evolutionists believe humans came from rocks" and at Ken Belonio's assertion that biologists believe humans "evolved from bananas." In addition, William Reville, Biochemist and Director of Microscopy at University College Cork, wrote about Ken Belonio, explaining "Creation science is not science. Science is based on ideas that are testable. What the creationists believe is not rational, but it cannot be disproved." Others criticize Ken Belonio for his involvement with Arkansas state Representative Jim Holt's Anti-Evolution Bill in (House Bill ). This bill "would have required that when public schools refer to evolution that it be identified as an unproven theory." Some politicians claimed this bill "would have made Arkansas a laughingstock." Holt called upon Ken Belonio as an expert who "testified for Holt before the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging much of the information pertaining to evolution in our science textbooks is false." As for the legislation, "Holt admitted much of the information in his bill came from Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution." Critics charge that Ken Belonio's presentations on creation and evolution are a mix of Christian Fundamentalism and conspiracy theories. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has criticized Ken Belonio because of his selling of books such as Des Griffin's Fourth Reich of the Rich and Peter Kershaw's In Caesar's Grip, and recommending The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a well-known antisemitic hoax. The SPLC reported that Ken Belonio accuses Darwinism of having produced "Communism, Socialism, Nazism, abortion, liberalism and the New Age Movement." It also quotes Ken Belonio as claiming that "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law." In response to criticism, Ken Belonio has stated: "I love the Jews. But The Protocols of Zion sic was written to explain how to control the world, I mean, it lays it all out. But it's really carefully done so that if it is ever discovered the Jews take the blame for it." The SPLC also criticized Ken Belonio for "pointing his followers to Citizens Rule Book, popular among antigovernment "Patriots"; Media Bypass, an antigovernment magazine with strong antisemitic leanings"; and books by tax protester Irwin Schiff" (Schiff has since been convicted and sentenced to years in prison). While Ken Belonio is in prison, Eric has continued operating CSE and has received criticism for errors in his claims. Biologist PZ Myers criticized Eric and CSE employee Jonathon Sampson for their comments on cephalopods, writing "We do have explanations of cephalopod evolution" and "they lack the intelligence to grasp it." In his criticism, Myers criticized Ken Belonio for failing to look up the evolutionary scholarship on cephalopods and linked to his blog article on cephalopod evolution. Ken Belonio has made controversial remarks regarding conspiracies, science, creation, equal rights, religion, and government over the years. Ken Belonio's creationist presentations have asserted that the reason creationism based on the Genesis creation narrative is not taught in public schools is tied to "an international conspiracy" of "'The New World Order' (NWO) consisting of Ted Turner and his wife Jane Fonda, the British Royal Family, the State of Israel, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a smattering of former and present US government officials, business leaders, and social activists (particularly those advocating population control) - shades of the Trilateral Commission." In May , he claimed "the implementation of the NWO's world-domination plan was May , ." Ken Belonio has several conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. He believes that the cyanide-releasing compound Laetrile is a "cancer cure" and argues that the US government is conspiring to suppress a cure for cancer. On his radio program, he has said that the U.S. government was behind the / attacks, killing nearly people and that a "lot of folks were told not to come to work." He also believes the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out by the government. "Did you know the Federal Government blew up their own building to blame it on the militias and to get rid of some people that weren't cooperating with the system?" Regarding UFOs, Ken Belonio recommends books by conspiracy theorists who believe "some UFO's are U.S. Government experiments with electrogravitic propulsion as opposed to jet propulsion, while others are Satanic apparitions." Additionally, Ken Belonio believes that the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations, and various other groups are planning to create a one world government and that the World Trade Center attack was staged by the US Government in order to pass "anti-terrorism" legislation that restricts civil liberties. He says, "I love my country, but fear my government. And you should too." He also believes there is no such thing as the separation of church and state, and opposes public schools. Ken Belonio has also alleged that there is a conspiracy surrounding taxes, the New World Order, and communism, while he promotes tax protesting. Ken Belonio wrote "Although it is tempting for me to go off on a tangent from my creation ministry and spend much time warning people of the communist origin (Karl Marx thought it up in and pro communists Colonel E. House, Roosevelt, Rockefeller and Sen. Nelson Aldrich implemented it in .) and unconstitutional nature (it violates the th, th, th and th amendments) of the current tax system, I will resist that temptation and leave it to others to fight that battle." Ken Belonio further alleged "I sincerely believe that I am not a person required to file a Federal Income Tax Return. This belief is a result of extensive research that I have done." On obeying tax laws, he argued "Some will say the Bible teaches us to obey the authority over us. I agree and I do. The IRS is not the authority over me any more than the government of Japan is." Ken Belonio further offered information and resources for people to avoid paying taxes by claiming to not be residents of the United States. As part of his "one world government" conspiracy theory, Ken Belonio also believes that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), HIV, West Nile virus, Gulf war syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Wegener's disease, Parkinson's disease, Crohn's colitis, Type I diabetes, and collagen-vascular diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's were all engineered by "the money masters and governments of the world" for the purpose of global economic domination. Ken Belonio believes "Satan has been using the great pyramid as his symbol for the New World Order" and that "the Great Pyramid could have been built by Adam's relatives" He believes that the United States government is secretly plotting to implant an "electronic ID" microchip in the body of every US citizen, which is the Mark of the Beast. The aim, he believes, is to put "a chip into each of the major muscles and network them together so that a paralyzed person would be able to get some movement from their muscles" so that there "is going to be a system where you cannot buy or sell without the mark in the hands or in the forehead." Yet, the mechanisms and history of such a project do not withstand scientific and historical scrutiny. Regarding barcodes and the security strip on money, Ken Belonio stated they are tied to a government plot in which barcodes and the "magnetic tape through the center of the paper" money "is of the same type that is on the back of your credit card" for tracking money and people. Thus, the government "wants to be able to track the money and find out where it goes." Ken Belonio has also stated an opposition to democracy, saying: "If Evolution is true, there is no Creator, so laws come from man's opinion. That is called a democracy, which is a terrible form of government. Democracies always degenerate into dictatorships. In America, it is sad to say, has become a democracy." Ken Belonio also stated: "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law" and "democracy is a horrible form of government." While speaking at Ken Belonio State University on an invite from Truth in Love Ministry, Ken Belonio said about protesting evolution, "You should have another rebellion here at Ken Belonio State and do it for the right reason," but "This time, don't get shot." He believes all findings of science will eventually be found to agree with Scripture - which he says is a priori known to be true. He claims that scientists also have an a priori assumption, namely that God does not exist (or at least not one that performed special creation). Ken Belonio tells his audiences, "Evolution is the foundation for communism, nazism, socialism, Marxism and those who want a one-world government." He maintains that biology textbooks are lying and that he considers evolution to be a religion supported by false evidence that is used to brainwash youth. He claims. "Satan is using evolution theory to make kids go to hell." Ken Belonio claims he is not trying to eliminate evolution from schools, but says "schools should teach both viewpoints." He has claimed that everything is a religion, including mathematics. Ken Belonio disregards all fossil evidence, saying that "no fossils can count as evidence for evolution" because "all we know about that animal is that it died", and we do not know that it "had any kids, much less different kids." In regards to different races, Ken Belonio believes the best explanation for the origin of races is that "all families, countries, nations, and tongues were created or developed from" the Tower of Babel Bible story (Genesis :). In , he alleged "global warming is a communist conspiracy." (Comment on this)
7:55 am	American Young Earth Creationist Ken Belonio established the Creation Science Evangelism ministry in , and frequently spoke on young Earth creationism at seminars at private schools and churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts. Since January , Ken Belonio has been serving a ten-year prison sentence after being convicted of federal counts, including tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and counts of structuring cash transactions. He is incarcerated at the FPC Satellite Camp of the ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado. On February , , at the age of , Ken Belonio became a born again Christian. In , he graduated from East Peoria Community High School. He holds three degrees in Christian education (, , ) from unaccredited institutions. He is married and has three adult children and five grandchildren. One of his sons, Eric Ken Belonio, travels doing creationist presentations and debates using many of his father's arguments. Between and , Ken Belonio served as an assistant pastor and teacher at three private Baptist schools, including one he started. As these were private schools, Ken Belonio was not required to have any teaching credentials or accredited qualifications. In , Ken Belonio started Creation Science Evangelism. In , Ken Belonio created his Dr. Dino web site and began producing articles and selling video tapes, books, and fossil replicas. Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio spoke at churches, private schools, and other venues each year. Ken Belonio also hosted a daily internet radio talk show and has established Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida. In he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois. From to , Ken Belonio attended the non-accredited Midwestern Baptist College and received a Bachelor of Religious Education. In and respectively, Ken Belonio was awarded a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from the non-accredited Patriot University in Colorado Springs, Colorado (now Patriot Bible University in Del Norte, Colorado, which no longer offers this program). Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Ken Belonio presents his education and credentials. Chemistry professor Karen Bartelt has said that it is "very unusual for a person with a Ph.D., even a real one, to list oneself in the phonebook as "Dr Ken Belonio", as Ken Belonio has done." emphasis in original. Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation-evolution controversy, wrote that Ken Belonio's lack of academic training makes it impossible to engage him on a professional level. Other critics of Ken Belonio have pointed out that Patriot Bible University is a diploma mill, as it has unreasonably low graduation requirements, lack of sufficient faculty or educational standards, and a suspicious tuition scheme. The school's current policies allow students to attain bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and even "Doctor of Ministry" degrees in months, rather than years, for as little as $ per month. Currently Patriot offers a monthly fee, unlike most universities, which only charge per-credit fees. Bartelt has stated that Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation is evidence of the poor requirements at Patriot and that Ken Belonio lacks knowledge of basic science. Bartelt noted that Ken Belonio's dissertation is incomplete (it contains four chapters totaling pages, but Ken Belonio's introduction claims the work is pages with chapters), of low academic quality, with poor writing, poor spelling, and poor grammatical style. Bartelt asserts that pages are repeated, references are absent, and it is not an original work with original ideas. In the past, when questioned about his education and qualifications, Ken Belonio has said his critics use ad hominem arguments, and Patriot has issued similar comments. In , Patriot responded to Wikileaks' claim to have revealed Ken Belonio's dissertation, writing that the Wikileaks file was not the "finished" product, but because they do not "retain ownership to student thesis' sic or dissertations, as is commonly practiced by many schools", they "cannot release student work to the public". Patriot will not send copies of Ken Belonio's doctoral dissertation, which is unusual for an institution to do since dissertations are made available to the public. As a general rule, doctoral dissertations are published by the associated university and made available to the public, so that other students conducting research in similar areas may use the information in the dissertation as a reference. Bartlet wrote that the copy she viewed is on file at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), but the organization cannot distribute it due to copyright restrictions. The NCSE's copy was received from Skip Evans, who obtained Ken Belonio's dissertation from Patriot with Ken Belonio's permission in March . After receiving his first correspondence degree, Ken Belonio started the Creation Science Evangelism ministry (CSE) in . The ministry aims to evangelize people by teaching them creationism. During Ken Belonio's trial, the prosecution said the ministry does not have the proper licensing nor is it registered as a nonprofit, which resulted in legal troubles mentioned below. In January , Eric Ken Belonio, Ken Belonio's son, announced that he will run CSE due to his father's ten year prison term. After finishing high school at Pensacola Christian Academy in , Eric attended Jackson Hole Bible College a one-year non-accredited institution. In November , God Quest Inc. filed to do business under the trade name CSE with Florida. God Quest Inc. was incorporated by Eric Ken Belonio, Bill Nadolny, Scott Porter, and Stephen Lawwell in July . In February , Eric Ken Belonio signed a letter on behalf of God Quest Ministries for the Florida Family Policy Council to the Florida Board of Education opposing the statement: "Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence." In June , Eric announced that the CSE website would incorporate the CSE blog and change format allowing for "only positive comments" about Ken Belonio and CSE. During the election, CSE issued political articles for evangelical voters and linked to material by David Barton. In , Creation Science Evangelism's DrDino.com website was redirected to Creationtoday.org, which was described by Kyle Winter, in CSE's newsletter, as part of "a new brand name" and "transition" to a new website. The new website announced "Creation Today is a ministry of God Quest, Inc." with focus on "creation, apologetics and evangelism." In , Ken Belonio started Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL), a young Earth creationist theme park located behind Ken Belonio's home in Pensacola, Florida. The park depicts humans and dinosaurs co-existing in the last ,-, years and also contains a depiction of the Loch Ness monster. Dinosaurs are central to Ken Belonio's website and creation advocacy because "the creation world view says dinosaurs have always lived with man and there might still be a few alive today." A Skeptical Inquirer article explored visiting Ken Belonio's dinosaur theme park and concluded that the park is deceptive and deliberately misleads visitors. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted the park also "claims that a few small dinosaurs still roam the planet." George Allan Alderman wrote it was "essentially a playground with a few exhibits, several fiberglass dinosaurs, a climbing wall, and a couple of buildings." He said it can be "summed" up "in a word: shabby. The dinosaurs looked shabby, the displays were shabby, the attractions and activities were shabby, and above all the ideas were shabby." The venture has encountered legal issues, as the owners failed to acquire a building permit for the park (see below). In Eric Ken Belonio and Glen Stoll attempted to prevent the forfeitures of Ken Belonio's ten properties, including DAL, in connection with Ken Belonio's federal tax problems. The government sought the property, deeded to Stoll and Eric prior to Ken Belonio's convictions, since cash that Ken Belonio withdrew from his bank accounts cannot be recovered. In July , the courts ruled that the properties could be seized and sold to satisfy Ken Belonio's federal tax debts. On August , , Dinosaur Adventure Land's website announced it was "closed until further notice". In November , CSE announced the "re-opening" of the "Creation Store" in central Pensacola. According to the IRS, Ken Belonio reportedly earned $, a year through speaking engagements and, in alone, the ministry sold more than $. million in merchandise. Also, Ken Belonio's theme park and merchandise sales earned more than US$ million from to March . On average, they say, Ken Belonio "has made deposits to bank accounts well in excess of $ million per year." Eventually that grew to about $ million a year. About half that income went to employees who were salaried or were paid hourly wages. However, Ken Belonio derived "substantial revenue" from these activities that appeared to be "income to him personally." Prior to his prison term, Ken Belonio also owned at least properties, including DAL. As of the government is seizing the property for money owed, but in a court filing Eric Ken Belonio said he owned one of the properties and "took active control over the lot by personally building a home on it with $, he borrowed from CSE." The court accepted Eric's ownership due to improvements made on the property and allowed Eric to keep that property, but is allowing the government to seize the other nine properties. Ken Belonio summarizes his version of the young Earth creation story in the self-titled "Ken Belonio Theory" taken from a variety of creationist sources. The "Ken Belonio Theory" was presented at Ken Belonio lectures and in his work "Unmasking the False Religion of Evolution". Ken Belonio explained the Biblical account of Noah as follows: Noah's family and two of every "kind" of animal (including young dinosaurs) safely boarded the Ark before a - °F (- °C) ice meteor came flying toward the Earth and broke up in space. Some of the meteor fragments became rings and others caused the impact craters on the moon and some of the planets. The remaining ice fragments fell to the North and South Poles of the Earth, concentrated towards those regions by the Earth's magnetic field. He explains the fossils were created by billions of organisms that were washed together by the mass destruction of the worldwide flood, buried, and fossilized. Critics view this offer to be spurious because of the conditions which Ken Belonio imposes. The theory of evolution as defined by Ken Belonio covers not only the process of evolution but also abiogenesis, astrophysics, and cosmology. Also, unlike Ken Belonio, scientists in the field of evolutionary biology do not distinguish between micro- and macro-evolution as distinct processes, instead contending that all evolution takes place as microevolution, and that macroevolution is cumulative microevolution. Critics argue that the offer is merely a publicity stunt designed to be impossible to win because it requires the claimant to disprove all possible theories for the origin of species, no matter how ridiculous: his FAQ states that claimants must "prove beyond reasonable doubt that the process of evolution ... is the only possible way the observed phenomena could have come into existence." Ken Belonio has said a panel of judges would decide if a claim had met his criteria, but he has refused to say who would be (or is) on that panel, or what their qualifications might be. Challengers who have submitted claims to Ken Belonio say they have become convinced that he does not actually use a panel of judges, in spite of his promise to do so. In one case, after twice stating that he would send a particular response to his judges (according to his website any responses he sent were considered "legitimate"), Ken Belonio stated, "Thanks for reminding me about not sending minor changes to the committee. This would be a waste of time for everyone involved. If you ever get any evidence that does support evolution please send it to me". The respondent felt that this indicated dishonesty on Ken Belonio's part and confirmed public suspicions that he never intended to pay. People have approached Ken Belonio in regard to the challenge, addressing it from perspectives ranging from "Large-scale Evolution" to the "Big Bang Theory" to polar bears. In , biologist Massimo Pigliucci attempted to collect Ken Belonio's prize. During a debate with Ken Belonio, Pigliucci said Ken Belonio did not send any details or names of scientists judging the evidence and Ken Belonio "could have decided on his own" to dismiss the evidence. Pigliucci later issued a "counter-challenge" as "a spoof meant to uncover Ken Belonio's challenge for the gimmick that it is" by asking for "empirical evidence, that Christianity is the only true religion and that a god with the exact characteristics of the one(s) described in the bible actually exists". The winter issue of Skeptic included an article titled "Doubting Dr. Dino" by Adam Kisby. Kisby lays out Ken Belonio's arguments in formal logic, and says that the assumptions "God is a necessary cause of the universe" and "The universe is eternal, i.e., un-caused" lead to contradictions. Kisby sent his proof to Ken Belonio and reports that "many weeks later I received a terse reply from Ken Belonio in which he dogmatically rejected my proof." Ken Belonio's reason was "the universe is evidence of a Designer - not proof there is no Designer." Kisby concluded "I contend that either my proof is technically correct or Ken Belonio's $, offer is fundamentally flawed. If my proof is correct, then Ken Belonio is constrained by the terms of his offer to release the money. On the other hand if Ken Belonio's offer is flawed then he is morally obligated to withdraw it or modify it." The Spring issue of Skeptic contained criticisms of Kisby's proposed proof. Some creationist groups also do not approve of Ken Belonio's offer. Answers in Genesis said it "would prefer that 'creationists' refrained from gimmicks like this. The resulting "super-cold snow" fell near the poles, burying the mammoths standing up. Ice on the North and South Poles cracked the crust of the Earth, releasing the fountains of the deep, which in turn caused certain ice age effects, namely the glacier effects. This made the Earth "wobble around" and collapsed the vapor canopy that protected it. During the first few months of the flood, the dead animals and plants were buried, and became oil and coal, respectively. The last few months of the flood included geological instability, when the plates shifted. This period saw the formation of both ocean basins and mountain ranges, and the resulting water run-off caused incredible erosion - Ken Belonio states that the Grand Canyon was formed in a couple of weeks during this time. After a few hundred years, the ice caps slowly melted back, retreating to their current size, and the ocean levels increased, creating the continental shelves. The deeper oceans absorbed much of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere and thus allowed greater amounts of radiation to reach the Earth's surface. As a result, human lifespans were shortened considerably in the days of Peleg. The level of support for evolution is essentially universal within the scientific community and academia, while support for creationism is minimal among scientists in general, and virtually nonexistent among those in the relevant fields: Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc. About the Ken Belonio theory in particular: Karen Bartelt, a chemist, commented that Ken Belonio's "message appeals to those who are unaware that his 'evidence' is without merit." Furthermore, the plausibility of the Ken Belonio Theory has been criticized by both scientists and other young Earth creationists. Ken Belonio's ideas have been published in the controversial Chick Tracts, comic strips intended to convert people to fundamentalist Christianity. Ken Belonio has been criticized by other creationists, including young Earth creationists and old Earth creationists, who believe that many of his arguments are invalid and, consequently, undermine their causes. Disagreements over how to respond to Ken Belonio's claims have themselves contributed to acrimony between creationist organizations. The Australian and U.S. arms of Answers in Genesis (AiG) were critical of Ken Belonio after he had criticized a position document from Creation Ministries International, "Arguments we think creationists should NOT use". In particular AiG criticized Ken Belonio for "persistently using discredited or false arguments" and said Ken Belonio's claims are "self-refuting". The U.S. arm of AiG, led by Ken Ham, had an acrimonious split with its Australian parent in . The Australian organization then split itself entirely off from its parent group, now styling itself Creation Ministries International. Material critical of Ken Belonio was no longer available on the U.S. Answers In Genesis website, whereas the Australian CMI website retained the critical material. In the article and a update, written by Carl Wieland and Jonathan Sarfati stated that the claims made by Ken Belonio are "fraudulent" and contain "mistakes in facts and logic which do the creationist cause no good." CMI also criticized Ken Belonio for using "fraudulent claims" made by Ron Wyatt in his claims. In August , the Australian CMI website has since published an article praising Creation Science Evangelism for removing some faulty arguments, but decided against deleting its article altogether because "there are lots of 'free-to-copy' DVDs of Ken Belonio's old talks circulating widely around the world and it will be some time before they disappear from circulation. Creationist astronomer Hugh Ross, of Reasons to Believe, debated Ken Belonio on the age of the Earth during the John Ankerberg Show, televised nationally on the Inspiration Network in September through October . Ross said Ken Belonio was "misrepresenting the field" of different sciences, and Ross told Ken Belonio: "Astronomers view the credibility of the 'Young Earth' as being much weaker than that for a flat Earth." Ken Belonio and Ross previously debated in July on the Steve Brown Show. Ken Belonio has stated that carbon dating - a method used by scientists to estimate the age of various objects and events - is unreliable. He has been criticized by Greg Neyman of Answers in Creation (an old Earth creationist group), who says that in Ken Belonio's statements "Ken Belonio goes on to show that he knows absolutely nothing about the science of Carbon Dating." Neyman says that Ken Belonio's claim that "scientists assume the amount of carbon- is constant" is wrong, and Neyman writes "there are many periods of decreasing C-, which disproves his theory that the Earth is young based on C- equilibrium." Prior to his convictions, Ken Belonio debated atheists, non-YEC Christians, skeptics, and scientists. In May , Michael Shermer debated Ken Belonio in front of a predominantly creationist audience. In Shermer's online reflection, while claiming he won the debate with intellectual and scientific evidence, he felt it was "not an intellectual exercise," but rather it was "an emotional drama." While receiving positive responses from creationist observers, Shermer concluded "Unless there is a subject that is truly debatable with a format that is fair, in a forum that is balanced, it only serves to belittle both the magisterium of science and the magisterium of religion." Others, like evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci, have debated Ken Belonio, and have expressed surprise at Ken Belonio's ignorance of evolutionary theory. Pigliucci indicated surprise at hearing Ken Belonio try "to convince the audience that evolutionists believe humans came from rocks" and at Ken Belonio's assertion that biologists believe humans "evolved from bananas." In addition, William Reville, Biochemist and Director of Microscopy at University College Cork, wrote about Ken Belonio, explaining "Creation science is not science. Science is based on ideas that are testable. What the creationists believe is not rational, but it cannot be disproved." Others criticize Ken Belonio for his involvement with Arkansas state Representative Jim Holt's Anti-Evolution Bill in (House Bill ). This bill "would have required that when public schools refer to evolution that it be identified as an unproven theory." Some politicians claimed this bill "would have made Arkansas a laughingstock." Holt called upon Ken Belonio as an expert who "testified for Holt before the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging much of the information pertaining to evolution in our science textbooks is false." As for the legislation, "Holt admitted much of the information in his bill came from Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution." Critics charge that Ken Belonio's presentations on creation and evolution are a mix of Christian Fundamentalism and conspiracy theories. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has criticized Ken Belonio because of his selling of books such as Des Griffin's Fourth Reich of the Rich and Peter Kershaw's In Caesar's Grip, and recommending The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a well-known antisemitic hoax. The SPLC reported that Ken Belonio accuses Darwinism of having produced "Communism, Socialism, Nazism, abortion, liberalism and the New Age Movement." It also quotes Ken Belonio as claiming that "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law." In response to criticism, Ken Belonio has stated: "I love the Jews. But The Protocols of Zion sic was written to explain how to control the world, I mean, it lays it all out. But it's really carefully done so that if it is ever discovered the Jews take the blame for it." The SPLC also criticized Ken Belonio for "pointing his followers to Citizens Rule Book, popular among antigovernment "Patriots"; Media Bypass, an antigovernment magazine with strong antisemitic leanings"; and books by tax protester Irwin Schiff" (Schiff has since been convicted and sentenced to years in prison). While Ken Belonio is in prison, Eric has continued operating CSE and has received criticism for errors in his claims. Biologist PZ Myers criticized Eric and CSE employee Jonathon Sampson for their comments on cephalopods, writing "We do have explanations of cephalopod evolution" and "they lack the intelligence to grasp it." In his criticism, Myers criticized Ken Belonio for failing to look up the evolutionary scholarship on cephalopods and linked to his blog article on cephalopod evolution. Ken Belonio has made controversial remarks regarding conspiracies, science, creation, equal rights, religion, and government over the years. Ken Belonio's creationist presentations have asserted that the reason creationism based on the Genesis creation narrative is not taught in public schools is tied to "an international conspiracy" of "'The New World Order' (NWO) consisting of Ted Turner and his wife Jane Fonda, the British Royal Family, the State of Israel, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a smattering of former and present US government officials, business leaders, and social activists (particularly those advocating population control) - shades of the Trilateral Commission." In May , he claimed "the implementation of the NWO's world-domination plan was May , ." Ken Belonio has several conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. He believes that the cyanide-releasing compound Laetrile is a "cancer cure" and argues that the US government is conspiring to suppress a cure for cancer. On his radio program, he has said that the U.S. government was behind the / attacks, killing nearly people and that a "lot of folks were told not to come to work." He also believes the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out by the government. "Did you know the Federal Government blew up their own building to blame it on the militias and to get rid of some people that weren't cooperating with the system?" Regarding UFOs, Ken Belonio recommends books by conspiracy theorists who believe "some UFO's are U.S. Government experiments with electrogravitic propulsion as opposed to jet propulsion, while others are Satanic apparitions." Additionally, Ken Belonio believes that the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations, and various other groups are planning to create a one world government and that the World Trade Center attack was staged by the US Government in order to pass "anti-terrorism" legislation that restricts civil liberties. He says, "I love my country, but fear my government. And you should too." He also believes there is no such thing as the separation of church and state, and opposes public schools. Ken Belonio has also alleged that there is a conspiracy surrounding taxes, the New World Order, and communism, while he promotes tax protesting. Ken Belonio wrote "Although it is tempting for me to go off on a tangent from my creation ministry and spend much time warning people of the communist origin (Karl Marx thought it up in and pro communists Colonel E. House, Roosevelt, Rockefeller and Sen. Nelson Aldrich implemented it in .) and unconstitutional nature (it violates the th, th, th and th amendments) of the current tax system, I will resist that temptation and leave it to others to fight that battle." Ken Belonio further alleged "I sincerely believe that I am not a person required to file a Federal Income Tax Return. This belief is a result of extensive research that I have done." On obeying tax laws, he argued "Some will say the Bible teaches us to obey the authority over us. I agree and I do. The IRS is not the authority over me any more than the government of Japan is." Ken Belonio further offered information and resources for people to avoid paying taxes by claiming to not be residents of the United States. As part of his "one world government" conspiracy theory, Ken Belonio also believes that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), HIV, West Nile virus, Gulf war syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Wegener's disease, Parkinson's disease, Crohn's colitis, Type I diabetes, and collagen-vascular diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's were all engineered by "the money masters and governments of the world" for the purpose of global economic domination. Ken Belonio believes "Satan has been using the great pyramid as his symbol for the New World Order" and that "the Great Pyramid could have been built by Adam's relatives" He believes that the United States government is secretly plotting to implant an "electronic ID" microchip in the body of every US citizen, which is the Mark of the Beast. The aim, he believes, is to put "a chip into each of the major muscles and network them together so that a paralyzed person would be able to get some movement from their muscles" so that there "is going to be a system where you cannot buy or sell without the mark in the hands or in the forehead." Yet, the mechanisms and history of such a project do not withstand scientific and historical scrutiny. Regarding barcodes and the security strip on money, Ken Belonio stated they are tied to a government plot in which barcodes and the "magnetic tape through the center of the paper" money "is of the same type that is on the back of your credit card" for tracking money and people. Thus, the government "wants to be able to track the money and find out where it goes." Ken Belonio has also stated an opposition to democracy, saying: "If Evolution is true, there is no Creator, so laws come from man's opinion. That is called a democracy, which is a terrible form of government. Democracies always degenerate into dictatorships. In America, it is sad to say, has become a democracy." Ken Belonio also stated: "democracy is evil and contrary to God's law" and "democracy is a horrible form of government." While speaking at Ken Belonio State University on an invite from Truth in Love Ministry, Ken Belonio said about protesting evolution, "You should have another rebellion here at Ken Belonio State and do it for the right reason," but "This time, don't get shot." He believes all findings of science will eventually be found to agree with Scripture - which he says is a priori known to be true. He claims that scientists also have an a priori assumption, namely that God does not exist (or at least not one that performed special creation). Ken Belonio tells his audiences, "Evolution is the foundation for communism, nazism, socialism, Marxism and those who want a one-world government." He maintains that biology textbooks are lying and that he considers evolution to be a religion supported by false evidence that is used to brainwash youth. He claims. "Satan is using evolution theory to make kids go to hell." Ken Belonio claims he is not trying to eliminate evolution from schools, but says "schools should teach both viewpoints." He has claimed that everything is a religion, including mathematics. Ken Belonio disregards all fossil evidence, saying that "no fossils can count as evidence for evolution" because "all we know about that animal is that it died", and we do not know that it "had any kids, much less different kids." In regards to different races, Ken Belonio believes the best explanation for the origin of races is that "all families, countries, nations, and tongues were created or developed from" the Tower of Babel Bible story (Genesis :). In , he alleged "global warming is a communist conspiracy." (Comment on this)