This [the intelligent design movement] isn't really, and never has been, a debate about science, it's about religion and philosophy. Phillip E. Johnson More Quotes by Phillip E. Johnson More Quotes From Phillip E. Johnson A constitutional democracy is in serious trouble if its citizenry does not have a certain degree of education and civic virtue. Phillip E. Johnson degreesdemocracydoe Scientists have long known that Darwinism is false. They have adhered to the myth out of self-interest and a zealous desire to put down God. Phillip E. Johnson selfdesirelong A Chinese paleontologist lectures around the world saying that recent fossil finds in his country are inconsistent with the Darwinian theory of evolution. His reason: The major animal groups appear abruptly in the rocks over a relatively short time, rather than evolving gradually from a common ancestor as Darwin's theory predicts. When this conclusion upsets American scientists, he wryly comments: "In China we can criticize Darwin but not the government. In America you can criticize the government but not Darwin." Phillip E. Johnson theory-of-evolutionanimalcountry Science...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. It follows that nature had to do its own creating, and that the means of creation must have included any role for God. Phillip E. Johnson creatingphilosophymean Evolutionary biologists have been able to pretend to know how complex biological systems originated only because they treated them as black boxes. Now that biochemists have opened the black boxes and seen what is inside, they know the Darwinian theory is just a story, not a scientific explanation. Phillip E. Johnson blackablestories Evolutionary naturalism takes the inherent limitations of science and turns them into a devastating philosophical weapon: because science is our only real way of knowing anything, what science cannot know cannot be real. Phillip E. Johnson philosophicalknowingreal In the most important sense a creationist is a person who believes in creation, and that includes people who believe that Genesis is a myth and that creation involved a process called evolution and consumed billions of years. Phillip E. Johnson believepeopleyears In short, it is not that evolutionary naturalists have been less brazen than the scientific creationists in holding science hostage, but rather that they have been infinitely more effective in getting away with it. Phillip E. Johnson hostagenaturalistget-away In China we can criticize Darwin but not the government. In America you can criticize the government but not Darwin. Phillip E. Johnson chinagovernmentamerica The assumption that nature is all there is, and that nature has been governed by the same rules at all times and places, makes it possible for natural science to be confident that it can explain such things as how life began. Phillip E. Johnson be-confidentassumptionnatural The problem with allowing God a role in the history of life is not that science would cease, but rather that scientists would have to acknowledge the existence of something important which is outside the boundaries of natural science. Phillip E. Johnson history-of-liferolesimportant According to the scientific naturalist version of cosmic history, nature is a permanently closed system of material effects that can never be influenced by something from outside - like God, for example. Phillip E. Johnson naturalistcosmicexample Materialism sets us free from sin-by proving that there is no such thing as sin. There's just antisocial behavior, which we can control with measures like laws and educational programs. Phillip E. Johnson educationalatheistlaw Modernist discourse [...] incorporates semantic devices - such as the labeling of theism as 'religion' and naturalism as 'science' - that work to prevent a dangerous debate over fundamental assumptions from breaking out in the open. Phillip E. Johnson debateassumptionfundamentals 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." Phillip E. Johnson challengesmindreality First, Darwinian theory tells us how a certain amount of diversity in life forms can develop once we have various types of complex living organisms already in existence. Phillip E. Johnson diversitycertainfirsts As a theist I believe that God exists and that God creates. Phillip E. Johnson god-existsi-believebelieve No doubt it is true that science cannot study God, but it hardly follows that God had to keep a safe distance from everything that scientists want to study. Phillip E. Johnson distancesafedoubt The second advantage claimed for naturalism is that it is equivalent to rationality, because it assumes a model of reality in which all events are in principle accessible to scientific investigation. Phillip E. Johnson eventsprinciplesreality The monopoly of science in the realm of knowledge explains why evolutionary biologists do not find it meaningful to address the question whether the Darwinian theory is true. Phillip E. Johnson addressesmonopolymeaningful
