Phillip E. Johnson

Phillip E. Johnson taught law for more than thirty years at the University of California — Berkeley where he was professor emeritus until his passing in 2019. He was recognized as a leading spokesman for the intelligent design movement, and was the author of many books, including Darwin on Trial, Reason in the Balance and Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds.

Archives

Science, Scientism, and Magic

_{Phillip E. Johnson
November 7, 2019}

The scientific culture of the 19th and early 20th century produced three great wizards — Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud.

Remembering Will Provine, Friend and Adversary

_{Phillip E. Johnson
November 4, 2019}

Provine was one of those rare people with a strong viewpoint who is still willing to imagine that there is an opposing view that is worth hearing.

Phillip Johnson: Remembering Will Provine (1942-2015)

_{Phillip Johnson
October 2, 2015}

On this episode of ID the Future, Phillip Johnson, the godfather of the modern intelligent design movement and author of Darwin on Trial, shares memories of the late Will Provine. An historian of science and evolutionary biologist at Cornell University, Provine was a longtime interlocutor and friend of Johnson. Listen in as Johnson shares about guest lecturing in Provine’s evolutionary biology classes, remembers Provine’s unusual candidness about the atheistic implications of Darwinism, and recounts their 1994 public debate.

Remembering Will Provine, Friend and Adversary

_{Phillip E. Johnson
September 8, 2015}

Provine helped me by emphasizing the right issues, rather than hiding them.

Darwin on Trial 20th Anniversary: Phillip Johnson Looks Back and Forward

_{Phillip Johnson
November 23, 2011}

On this episode of ID The Future, we hear from Phillip Johnson on the 20th anniversary of his seminal book Darwin on Trial, which challenged mainstream beliefs about Darwinian evolution and inspired many scientists and scholars of the modern intelligent design movement. With characteristic wit and humor, Johnson talks about the reaction to his book and his hopes for the future of the debate and the ID movement.

Phillip E. Johnson on Major Problems with Darwinian Theory

_{Phillip E. Johnson
February 13, 2011}

Phillip E. Johnson is asked: ‘What do you consider to be the most significant problems with Darwinian theory?’ From “Darwinism”, Focus on Origins, and interview with Phillip E. Johnson at the University of California, Berkeley.

Phillip E. Johnson Replies to Nancey Murphy’s Review of Darwin on Trial

_{Excerpt from Reason in the Balance}_{Phillip E. Johnson
January 1, 2011}

Phillip E. Johnson replies in Reason in the Balance to Nancey Murphy’s review of Darwin on Trial. “In her review of Darwin on Trial, Murphy faults me for failing to evaluate Darwinism on Lakatosian criteria. She concedes that it is difficult to determine whether a program is progressive or degenerative. (If Catholic modernism is an example of a progressive program, Read More ›

Dogmatic Signs

_{A Review of Signature in the Cell}_{Phillip E. Johnson
November 10, 2010}

For anyone who wants to understand the argument for the necessary role of intelligent design in the history of life, the indispensable source is now Stephen C. Meyers' book Signature in the Cell.

Atheist Crusaders

_{Phillip E. Johnson
April 1, 2010}

I have read Christopher Hitchens’s book God Is Not Great twice, in preparation for a book I have co-written with Biola University philosopher Dr. John Mark Reynolds. Due to come out this spring, our book is titled Against All Gods: What’s Right and Wrong About the “New Atheism.” Because not all readers may know at once who the new atheists are, I will say Read More ›

Against All Gods: What’s Right and Wrong about the New Atheism

_{Phillip E. Johnson
March 18, 2010}

Widely considered a founder of the contemporary intelligent design (ID) scientific movement, law professor and author Phillip Johnson’s 1991 book Darwin on Trial convinced many thinkers that neo-Darwinian evolution was based more on the philosophy of naturalism than on the scientific evidence. Now, Johnson has teamed up with John Mark Reynolds to write Against All Gods: What’s Right and Wrong Read More ›

Intelligent Design 101

_{Leading Experts Explain the Key Issues}_{Casey Luskin
March 11, 2008}

Intelligent Design 101 brings together leading scholars and researchers from the fields of science and intelligent design studies, such as Michael Behe and Phillip Johnson. Their detailed and insightful essays form an introduction to intelligent design, from the basics of the theory, to its history and growing place in science and education.

PBS, Darwin and Dover: an Interview with Phillip Johnson

_{Phillip Johnson
November 12, 2007}

On this episode of ID The Future, CSC’s Casey Luskin interviews Phillip Johnson (Jefferson E. Peyser Professor of Law, emeritus School of Law University of California, Berkeley) author of the bestseller Darwin on Trial, and one of the founders of the modern intelligent design movement.

Philip Johnson on Rick Santorum’s “Teach the Controversy” Amendment

_{Transcript of a Clip from One Nation Under Darwin}_{Phillip E. Johnson
June 25, 2007}

When something like ninety percent of the public is skeptical to one degree or another of the theory of evolution, how should educational authorities address this controversial subject. I said they should teach the controversy. A simple, a three-word soundbite to explain the principle: teach the controversy. Teach what the official voices of science say. That’s knowledge students should have. Read More ›

Intelligent Design in Biology

_{Phillip E. Johnson
February 19, 2007}

The individuals who make up the Intelligent Design Movement (IDM) came together in the aftermath of the publication of my book Darwin on Trial (Regnery 1991, IVP 1993). The defining purpose of the IDM is to advance the argument that neo-Darwinism has failed to explain the origin of the highly complex information systems and structures of living organisms, from the Read More ›

Signs of Intelligence

_{Understanding Intelligent Design}_{William A. Dembski
May 23, 2006}

Signs of Intelligence is a collection of essays from various scholars of the intelligent design movement, including many fellows of the Discovery Institute who are explaining the precise meaning of the scientific theory of intelligent design. When the NCSE reviewed this book, they called it “aimless.” A more accurate description would have been “threatening a wide variety of disciplines behind Read More ›

Reason in the Balance

_{The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education}_{Phillip E. Johnson
May 19, 2006}

In his earlier book, Darwin on Trial, UC Berkeley law professor and former U.S. Supreme Court clerk Phillip Johnson took on the scientific establishment. In Reason in the Balance, Johnson spars with those of his own kind, and exposes how the legal establishment has adopted naturalistic assumptions in its thinking to exclude any mention of a creative intelligence. Johnson, who Read More ›