Phillip E. Johnson
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Phillip E. Johnson (born 1940) is a retired American law professor and author. He is considered the father of the intelligent design movement, which criticizes the theory of evolution, and promotes creationism as an alternative. Johnson has also participated in a movement challenging the scientific orthodoxy that HIV is the cause of AIDS.[1] (http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/kmreason.htm)
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Biography
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Johnson was born in Aurora, Illinois in 1940. He received a BA degree in English literature, from Harvard University in 1961. He studied law at the University of Chicago. He served as a law clerk for the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, Earl Warren. He is an emeritus professor of law at Boalt School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, where he served on the active faculty from 1967-2000.
Despite the fact that he has no formal background in the biological sciences, Johnson has become a prominent critic of evolutionary theory. Johnson popularized the term "intelligent design" in its current sense in his 1991 book, Darwin on Trial, and he remains one of the best known advocates for the intelligent design movement.
He is a critic of naturalism, and espouses a philosophy for which he has coined the term theistic realism. He is the author of several books on intelligent design and related topics, as well as textbooks on criminal law.
Johnson is a Christian and elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Ideas
Intelligent Design
Johnson is best known as the founder of the intelligent design movement and principal architect of the Wedge Strategy. He is one of the ID movement's most prolific authors and a serves as program director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture (CSC). Johnson has advocated strongly in the public and political spheres for the concepts of Intelligent Design; that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, rather than an undirected process such as natural selection, and theistic realism; that science, by relying upon methodological naturalism, demands an priori adoption of a naturalistic philosophy that wrongly dismisses out of hand any explanation that contains a supernatural cause. These concepts are a common theme in his many books, including "Darwin on Trial," "Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law and Education," "Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds," and "The Wedge of Truth: Splitting the Foundations of Naturalism."
Working through the Center for Science and Culture Johnson was responsible for the early draft language of the Santorum Amendment. The goal to which the Discovery Institute's CSC dedicates the most effort and resources is the promotion of the inclusion of intelligent design as part of public school science curricula and promoting a philosophical basis for theistic belief in contemporary society by undermining or eliminating altogether methodological naturalism from the practice of science.
Nancy Pearcey, a Center for Science and Culture fellow and Johnson associate, acknowledges Johnson's leadership of the intelligent design movement in two of her most recent publications. In an interview with Johnson for World magazine, Pearcey says, "It is not only in politics that leaders forge movements. Phillip Johnson has developed what is called the 'Intelligent Design' movement..." [2] (http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/arn/pearcey/np_world-wedge0800.htm) In Christianity Today, she reveals Johnson's religious beliefs and his animosity toward evolution and affirms Johnson as "The unofficial spokesman for ID" [http://www.windowview.org/arnfiles/notinkansasanymor.html
In his 1997 book Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds Johnson summed up the underlying philosophy of his advocacy for intelligent design and against methodological and philosophical naturalism:
- "If we understand our own times, we will know that we should affirm the reality of God by challenging the domination of materialism and naturalism in the world of the mind. With the assistance of many friends I have developed a strategy for doing this,...We call our strategy the "wedge." pg. 91-92, "Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds" Phillip Johnson, 1997
Johnson acknowledges that the goal of the intelligent design movement is to promote a theistic and creationist agenda cast as a scientific concept [3] (http://www.christianity.ca/news/social-issues/2004/03.001.html) [4] (http://www.leaderu.com/pjohnson/world2.html) [5] (http://ebd10.ebd.csic.es/pdfs/DarwSciOrPhil.pdf)
Evolution and intelligent design in public education
In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Phillip E. Johnson set forth part of the philosophical basis for the teaching policy. He made the following observations about public education, the definition of science, and the scientific establishment:
- The root of the problem is that "science" has two distinct definitions in our culture. On the one hand, science refers to a method of investigation involving things like careful measurements, repeatable experiments, and especially a skeptical, open-minded attitude that insists that all claims be carefully tested. Science also has become identified with a philosophy known as materialism or scientific naturalism. This philosophy insists that nature is all there is, or at least the only thing about which we can have any knowledge. . . . Students are not supposed to approach this philosophy with open-minded skepticism, but to believe it on faith.[6] (http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=7)
He notes that science and science education are not always driven by a priori philosophical and religious neutrality:
- All the most prominent Darwinists proclaim naturalistic philosophy when they think it safe to do so. Carl Sagan had nothing but contempt for those who deny that humans and all other species "arose by blind physical and chemical forces over eons from slime." Richard Dawkins exults that Darwin "made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist," and Richard Lewontin has written that scientists must stick to philosophical materialism regardless of the evidence, because "we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door." [7] (http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=7)
Johnson advocates a policy of Teach the Controversy, a movement which advocates teaching scientific evidence which supports and challenges evolution in public schools, and allow students the opportunity to consider the facts for themselves, to foster critical thinking.
He writes:
- If the Academy meant to teach scientific investigation, rather than to inculcate a belief system, it would encourage students to think about why, if natural selection has been continuously active in creating, the observed examples involve very limited back-and-forth variation that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. But skepticism of that kind might spread and threaten the whole system of naturalistic belief. Why is the fossil record overall so difficult to reconcile with the steady process of gradual transformation predicted by the neo-Darwinian theory? How would the theory fare if we did not assume at the start that nature had to do its own creating, so a naturalistic creation mechanism simply has to exist regardless of the evidence? These are the kinds of questions the Darwinists don't want to encourage students to ask.
- This doesn't mean that students in Kansas or elsewhere shouldn't be taught about evolution. In context, the Kansas action was a protest against enshrining a particular worldview as a scientific fact and against making "evolution" an exception to the usual American tradition that the people have a right to disagree with the experts. Take evolution away from the worldview promoters and return it to the real scientific investigators, and a chronic social conflict will become an exciting intellectual adventure."[8] (http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=7)
Advocacy of Christianity outside public schools
In addition to his limited goals for public education, Johnson also speaks widely in Christian circles on topics of apologetics and evangelism. Johnson believes that honest examination of the facts will lead unbiased observers to Christian truth. He argues as strongly against 'indoctrination' of atheists to turn them into Christians, and against the suppression of scientific facts and arguments that appear to run counter to Christian teaching An example of this thinking is apparent when Johnson told an assembly at a fundamentalist Christian conference entitled, Reclaiming America For Christ:
- "The objective is to convince people that Darwinism is inherently atheistic, thus shifting the debate from creationism vs. evolution to the existence of God vs. the non-existence of God. From there people are introduced to the truth of the Bible and then the question of sin and finally introduced to Jesus." [9] (http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/eskeptic05-04-05.html)
In speaking to the audience of the Christian media group and church, Coral Ridge Ministries, [10] (http://www.coralridge.org), Johnson expanded on his views on education:
- "In summary, we have to educate our young people; we have to give them the armor they need. We have to think about how we're going on the offensive rather than staying on the defensive. And above all, we have to come out to the culture with the view that we are the ones who really stand for freedom of thought. You see, we don't have to fear freedom of thought because good thinking done in the right way will eventually lead back to the Church, to the truth-the truth that sets people free, even if it goes through a couple of detours on the way. And so we're the ones that stand for good science, objective reasoning, assumptions on the table, a high level of education, and freedom of conscience to think as we are capable of thinking. That's what America stands for, and that's something we stand for, and that's something the Christian Church and the Christian Gospel stand for-the truth that makes you free. Let's recapture that, while we're recapturing America." [11] (http://www.coralridge.org/specialdocs/evolutiondebate.asp)
When speaking to the same audience on a different occasion, Johnson said the following:
- "What I am not doing is bringing the Bible into the university and saying, "We should believe this." Bringing the Bible into question works very well when you are talking to a Bible-believing audience. But it is a disastrous thing to do when you are talking, as I am constantly, to a world of people for whom the fact that something is in the Bible is a reason for not believing it."
- "You see, if they thought they had good evidence for something, and then they saw it in the Bible, they would begin to doubt. That is what has to be kept out of the argument if you are going to do what I to do, which is to focus on the defects in their [the evolutionist's] case—the bad logic, the bad science, the bad reasoning, and the bad evidence." [12] (http://www.coralridge.org/BroadcastArchives.asp#666)
HIV and AIDS
Johnson is involved in a movement challenging the scientific orthodoxy that HIV is the cause of AIDS.[13] (http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/index.htm) This group asserts, broadly, that there is no scientific evidence that HIV actually causes AIDS, and that while HIV and AIDS are correlated, they are not universally correllated, as (it is argued) there are people who have AIDS symptoms without HIV and people with HIV who have no AIDS symptoms. They argue that correlative statistics are misleading, because AIDS is defined by the presence of the HIV virus, so that a person with tuberculosis and HIV has AIDS, but a person with Tuberculosis but without HIV does not have AIDS. One researcher for the organization reported finding over 4,000 cases in which AIDS symptoms were suffered without HIV, but these cases were not counted as AIDS because the HIV virus was absent. Since, they argue, there is no known mechanism of causation nor is there a perfect correlation, they conclude that the cause of AIDS is as yet unknown.[14] (http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/kmreason.htm) Johnson's view that HIV is not the cause of AIDS is an opinion rejected by the scientific and medical communities at large.
Criticisms
Most criticisms of Johnson center around his central role in the Discovery Institute and the organization's carefully orchestrated campaign known as the Wedge Strategy. The wedge strategy is designed to leave the science establishment looking close-minded in the short term with a long term goal being a redefinition of science that centers on the removal of methodological naturalism from the philosophy of science and the scientific method, thereby allowing for supernatural explanations to be introduced as science. This would have the net effect of bringing a religious orientation into the public schools via science classrooms. Critics note that Johnson, as an principal officer of the Discovery Institute, often cites an overall plan to put the United States on a course toward the theocracy envisioned in the Wedge Strategy, and that the Discovery Institute as a matter policy intentionally obfuscates its agenda. According to Johnson, "The movement we now call the wedge made its public debut at a conference of scientists and philosophers held at Southern Methodist University in March 1992. [15] (http://www.touchstonemag.com/docs/issues/12.4docs/12-4pg18.html) Johnson descibes the wedge strategy thusly:
- "We are taking an intuition most people have (the belief in God) and making it a scientific and academic enterprise. We are removing the most important cultural roadblock to accepting the role of God as creator." Johnson, Enlisting Science to Find the Fingerprints of a Creator. The Los Angeles Times. March, 2001.
- "Our strategy has been to change the subject a bit so that we can get the issue of intelligent design, which really means the reality of God, before the academic world and into the schools." [16] (http://www.christianity.ca/news/social-issues/2004/03.001.html)
- "This isn't really, and never has been a debate about science. Its about religion and philosophy." [17] (http://www.leaderu.com/pjohnson/world2.html)
- ""The objective [of the Wedge Strategy] is to convince people that Darwinism is inherently atheistic, thus shifting the debate from creationism vs. evolution to the existence of God vs. the non-existence of God. From there people are introduced to 'the truth' of the Bible and then 'the question of sin' and finally 'introduced to Jesus.'" [18] (http://ebd10.ebd.csic.es/pdfs/DarwSciOrPhil.pdf)
One serious specific allegation leveled by a number of critics is that Johnson is often intellectually dishonest in his arguments advancing intelligent design and attacking the scientific community. [19] (http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/feb04.html#run) [20] (http://www.talkreason.org/articles/honesty.cfm) For example, he has been accused of numerous equivocations, particularly involving the term naturalism which can refer either to methodological naturalism or to philosophical naturalism. [21] (http://www.talkdesign.org/faqs/naturalism.html) [22] (http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/9481_darwin_prosecuted_review_of_j_12_15_1993.asp)
In fact-checking Johnson's books Darwin on Trial and Defeating Darwinism, a reviewer discovered that almost every scientific source Johnson cited had been misused or distorted, from simple misinterpretations and innuendos to outright fabrications. The reviewer, Brian Spitzer, described Darwin on Trial the most deceptive book he had ever read. [23] (http://www.talkreason.org/articles/honesty.cfm)
The Teach the Controversy strategy and movement is considered by the Discovery Institute a necessary adjunct of its wedge strategy. The concept and phrase "Teach the Controversy" was first presented publicly in Phillip E. Johnson's book "The Wedge of Truth: Splitting the Foundations of Naturalism" published in 2000.
Since Johnson is considered by those both inside and outside the movement to be the father and architect of the intelligent design movement and its strategies, Johnson's statements validate the criticisms leveled by those who allege that the Discovery Institute and its allied organizations are merely stripping the obvious religious content from their anti-evolution assertions as a means of avoiding the legal restrictions of the Establishment Clause. They argue that ID is simply an attempt to put a patina of secularity on top of what is a fundamentally religious belief and thus that the "Teach the Controversy" exhortation is disingenuous; particulary when contrasted to his statements in the Wall Street Journal and other secular media. Critics point out that contrary to the Discovery Institute's and Johnson's claims, the theory of evolution is well supported and widely accepted within the scientific community; there is little controversy on a scientific level. Popular disagreement with evolutionary theory should not be considered as a reason for challenging it as a scientifically valid subject to be taught, they contend.
Bibliography
- Darwin on Trial ISBN 0-83-081324-1
- Reason in the Balance ISBN 0-83-081929-0
- Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds ISBN 0-83-081360-8
- The Wedge of Truth ISBN 0-83-082267-4
- Objections Sustained ISBN 0-83-082288-7
- The Right Questions ISBN 0-83-082294-1
- Darwinism: Science or Philosophy? ISBN 0-96-421040-1
External links
Johnson's sites
- Phillip E. Johnson's web page (http://www.arn.org/authors/johnson.html)
- Johnson's column in a Christian magazine (http://www.touchstonemag.com/leadingedge.php)
- The Religion of the Blind Watchmaker (by Johnson) (http://www.leaderu.com/real/ri9203/watchmkr.html)
- Review of Darwin on trial by a creationist (http://www.asa3.org/gray/evolution_trial/dotreview.html)
- Origin of the Specious - article on the development of intelligent design (http://reason.com/9707/fe.bailey.shtml)
- HIV and AIDS (http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/index/pjohnson.htm)
Anti-creationist sites
- Talk.origins on Johnson (http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/johnson.html)
- talk design on Johnson (http://www.talkdesign.org/faqs/johnson.html)
- National Center for Science Education review of Darwin on Trial (http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/resources/165252685546.asp)
- The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth (http://www.talkreason.org/articles/honesty.cfm) a review of Johnson's methods by Brian Spitzer, talkreason.org
Audio and Video
- Johnson interview (http://id-www.ucsb.edu/detche/video/origins/johnson/johnson.html)
- Evolution and Intelligent Design. (http://lpd-ra.blueletterbible.org:8080/ramgen/dolphin/nnu.ra) Northwest Nazarene University, 13 November 2000. Lambert Dolphin's RealAudio Library
- Darwinism: Science or Naturalistic Philosophy?. Debate between William B. Provine and Phillip E. Johnson at Stanford University (http://webcast.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/UCSD_TV/6287DarSciorPhi.rm), 30 April 1994. University of California Television
- Focus on Darwinism. (http://webcast.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/UCSD_TV/6289FocOriOnDarw.rm) Interview, 1993
- Darwinism on Trial. (http://webcast.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/UCSD_TV/6444DarOnTri.rm)] Address at University of California, Irvine, 1992
| There several interrelated articles on Wikipedia about this subject, see: Teach the Controversy; Wedge strategy; Discovery Institute; Howard Ahmanson, Jr |
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