Phillip E. Johnson

Johnson was an opponent of "fully naturalistic evolution, involving chance mechanisms and natural selection". Johnson argued that scientists accepted the theory of evolution "before it was rigorously tested, and thereafter used all their authority to convince the public that naturalistic processes are sufficient to produce a human from a bacterium, and a bacterium from a mix of chemicals."

Johnson studied at Harvard University, University of Chicago Law School and West Aurora High School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is law, criminology and criminal law. Employment is recorded with University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Works named in the authority record are Darwin on Trial.

• Name — Phillip E. Johnson • Born — 18 June 1940 • Birthplace — Aurora, Illinois, U.S. • Died — 2 November 2019 • Place of death — Berkeley, California, U.S. • Known for — Advocacy of intelligent design • Notable Works — Darwin on Trial (1991) • Title — Jefferson E. Peyser Professor of Law • Education — Harvard University (BA) University of Chicago (JD) • Occupation — * Law professor • author

Johnson was born in Aurora, Illinois, on June 18, 1940. He graduated from West Aurora High School in 1958. During high school, he was accepted to attend Harvard University while still a junior, and enrolled at Harvard at age 16. He graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature in 1961 and became a teacher in rural Kenya afterwards. Johnson then studied law at the University of Chicago and graduated first in his class from the University of Chicago Law School with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 1965. As a law student, Johnson was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. Throughout college, he was agnostic. After law school, Johnson served as a law clerk for Chief Justice Roger J. Traynor at the California Supreme Court from 1965 to 1966, then clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren at the Supreme Court of the United States from 1966 to 1967. He was admitted to the State Bar of California on January 11, 1966.

Upon finishing his clerkship at the U.S. Supreme Court, Johnson was offered a professorship at Yale Law School, but declined. Instead, he joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, as he recalled the professors there as "more like me—public school types". From 1967 to 2000, Johnson was an active professor of law at the UC Berkeley School of Law and retained the title of professor emeritus at the time of his death. Johnson served as deputy district attorney and held visiting professorships at Emory University and at University College London.

At the age of 38, Johnson became a born again Christian following a divorce, and later became an elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Johnson recounted that while on a sabbatical in England he sought, through prayer, inspiration for what he should do with the rest of his life, and then received an epiphany after he read Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker (1986) and Michael Denton's Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1985). Johnson later said, "Something about the Darwinists' rhetorical style made me think they had something to hide." Despite having no formal background in biology, he felt that he could add insight into the premises and arguments. Johnson stated that he approached the creation evolution dispute not as a scientist but as an academic lawyer by profession, with a specialty in analyzing the logic of arguments and identifying the assumptions that lie behind those arguments. He noted that what people think about evolutionism depends very heavily on the kind of logic they employ and the kind of assumptions they make. Further, he pointed out that four of the eleven members of the special committee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences to prepare its official booklet titled Science and Creationism were lawyers. (That first edition of the publication, which was finished in 1984, was prepared as an amicus brief in the Edwards v. Aguillard case that went before the U.S. Supreme Court.) In 1989, Of Pandas and People by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon was published as the first book to promote intelligent design. The first edition of Darwin on Trial was published in 1991. In notes listing his sources, Johnson said about Of Pandas and People that "This book is 'creationist' only in the sense that it juxtaposes a paradigm of 'intelligent design' with the dominant paradigm of (naturalistic) evolution, and makes the case for the former. It does not rely on the authority of the Bible." Following that, Johnson sought supporters for his "Wedge Strategy". In the ID blog Evolution News, Casey Luskin described him as the godfather of the intelligent design movement, and PBS said he was "known as the father of intelligent design". Johnson was a critic of methodological naturalism, the basic principle that science can only investigate natural causes for observable phenomena, and espoused a philosophy he called "theistic realism." He was the author of several books on intelligent design, science, philosophy, and religion, as well as textbooks on criminal law. He has appeared on various programs such as PBS's Firing Line and a Nova episode, "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial."

Johnson was known as one of the founders of the intelligent design movement, principal architect of the wedge strategy, and the author of the Santorum Amendment. Johnson rejects common descent and does not take a position on the age of the Earth. These concepts are a common theme in his books, including Darwin on Trial, Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education (1995), Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds (1997), and The Wedge of Truth: Splitting the Foundations of Naturalism (2000). Eugenie Scott wrote that Darwin on Trial "teaches little that is accurate about either the nature of science, or the topic of evolution. It is recommended neither by scientists nor educators." Working through the Center for Science and Culture, Johnson wrote the early draft language of the Santorum Amendment, which encouraged a "Teach the Controversy" approach to evolution in public school education. Nancy Pearcey, a Center for Science and Culture fellow and Johnson associate, credits 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..." In Christianity Today, she reveals Johnson's religious beliefs and his criticism of evolution and affirms Johnson as "The unofficial spokesman for ID" The scientific community views intelligent design as pseudoscience and junk science.

In the book Darwin on Trial, 1991, Johnson disputed the tenets of evolution and promoted intelligent design. He wrote the book with the thesis that evolution could be "tried" like a defendant in court. Darwin on Trial became a central text of the intelligent design movement.

In its earliest days the intelligent design movement was called the 'wedge movement'. The wedge metaphor, attributed to Johnson, is that of a metal wedge splitting a log and represents using an aggressive public relations program to create an opening for the supernatural in the public's understanding of science. Johnson acknowledges that the goal of the intelligent design movement is to promote a theistic agenda as a scientific concept. According to Johnson, the wedge movement, if not the term, began in 1992: 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, following the publication of my book Darwin on Trial. The conference brought together as speakers some key Wedge figures, particularly Michael Behe, Stephen Meyer, William Dembski, and myself. Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State described the wedge strategy: 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.' Johnson is one of the authors of the Discovery Institute's Wedge Document and its "Teach the Controversy" campaign, which attempts to cast doubt on the validity of the theory of evolution, its acceptance within the scientific community, and reduce its role in public school science curricula while promoting intelligent design. The "Teach the Controversy" campaign portrays evolution as "a theory in crisis." 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". Johnson has described the wedge strategy as: • "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." • "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." • "This isn't really, and never has been, a debate about science. It's about religion and philosophy." • "So the question is: 'How to win?' That's when I began to develop what you now see full-fledged in the 'wedge' strategy: 'Stick with the most important thing' —the mechanism and the building up of information. Get the Bible and the Book of Genesis out of the debate because you do not want to raise the so-called Bible-science dichotomy. Phrase the argument in such a way that you can get it heard in the secular academy and in a way that tends to unify the religious dissenters. That means concentrating on, 'Do you need a Creator to do the creating, or can nature do it on its own?' and refusing to get sidetracked onto other issues, which people are always trying to do." When asked how best to raise doubts and question evolution with non-believers, Johnson responded:

The book Wedge of Truth, published by Johnson in 2000, is an expansion of the Wedge Document. He states that truth has the ability to speak for itself.

Johnson had two children and lived with his wife in Berkeley, California. In 2004, he was awarded the inaugural "Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth" by Biola University, a private evangelical Christian college noted for its promotion of intelligent design. Johnson died on November 2, 2019, at his home.

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