The Duggars Visited A Creationist Science Institute And It’s Just As Scintillating As You’d Hope

Hey — do you smell that? Sort of fusty, unpleasant, a little earthy? Yes. It’s the smell of ripe bullshit in the morning, and it comes to you today via our friends the Duggar-Seewalds.

Last week, according to Raw Story, Jessa Duggar and her husband Shaved Chewbacca Ben Seewald made their way to the Institute for Creation Research, which, like the Quiverfull Movement, is apparently a thing now. They of course gifted the Internet with a YouTube video to document their time spent in the super-worthwhile pursuit of being told exactly what they wanted to hear by the “researchers” at the Institute, and yes, I had to fight Valerie to the death for the chance to cover this story. (Don’t worry, she’ll be back from the grave in time to post the recap of last night’s Duggars episode.) Duggars plus creation research? Guys, it’s not my birthday, you really shouldn’t have.

According to the Institute for Creation Research, which is located, to my total lack of surprise, in Texas, they are the “leaders in scientific research within the context of biblical creation“. Well, congratulations, but being the leader of something embarrassing is just not something to get excited about. I am currently the leader of people wearing a bathrobe to work in my house today — big whoop.

And starting scientific research from what you ‘know’ to be true and looking for facts to support you from there is kind of backwards. The Institute’s “How We Do Research” page doesn’t shed a lot of light on where the science comes into creation science, either, but it does mention that their approach is “unique”, and it has a picture of a guy holding a beaker full of colored liquid. If years of network TV has taught me anything, it’s that colorful liquids are science.

(Also, while we’re on the subject of pictures, while looking for info on this place, I found two different pictures of their ‘campus’ with two different signs. At first I thought that maybe they’d just installed a new sign at some point in the 6,000-year-old history of the world, but then I noticed that both pictures are clearly exactly the same besides the sign, which makes me wonder if there’s a campus at all or if Duggar and Seewald were actually meeting these super-duper prestigious scientists at an “Institute” that’s actually located next to a hair salon in a mall somewhere.)

Seewald, whom Valerie for some reason I just can’t imagine has nicknamed “Derp”,  spoke to the Institute’s resident astrophysics nerd, Dr. Jason Lisle. According to Seewald/Chewie/Derp, “all science points to the validation of the Genesis account.” I’m unclear on He then promptly goes on to cite precisely zero actual scientific evidence, and starts talking about Lisle’s credentials instead. He also at one point asks whether Lisle can prove

the existence of God (because apparently a PhD in astrophysics comes with a lot of background in evolutionary biology and theology now). Lisle responds,

“It’s like a fish asking for the evidence of water … The evidence of God is ubiquitous. It is everywhere. In fact, Roman 1 tells us that God has revealed himself to everyone, and what that means is, there is really no such thing as an atheist.”

So … no on the ‘prove the existence of God’ thing, then? At best he’s proved that there’s no such thing as an atheist, and even that’s a big stretch. (I pulled up my computer’s built-in camera to make sure, and despite Lisle’s assurances, I do appear to exist. Checkmate, creationists!)

To be honest, the Duggars and Duggar-kin aren’t even that good at being decent humans; they definitely don’t need to try to horn in on science territory. I am worse at science for having watched that video, and if you watched it, so are you, too. If faith in a literal reading of Genesis, is your jam, that’s cool — but why do you need (bad) science to back you up? Isn’t that sort of the opposite of faith? Duggars, I’m not going to try to tell you how to wear denim; so please don’t presume you know best when it comes to natural philosophy and the scientific method.

(Image: Facebook)