Phillip E. Johnson, the influential American legal scholar and advocate for intelligent design, challenged conventional wisdom in the realms of science, education, and public policy with his groundbreaking critique of Darwinian evolution. From his seminal work "Darwin on Trial" to his efforts to promote critical thinking and academic freedom in the classroom, Johnson's legacy as a champion of intellectual inquiry and scientific integrity continues to shape debates on the origins of life and the nature of reality.
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Darwinism is not merely a support for naturalistic philosophy: it is a product of naturalistic philosophy."
"Truth as such is not a particularly important concept in naturalistic philosophy."
"Most importantly, I agree that the truth of these matters should be determined by interpretation of scientific evidence - experiments, fossil studies and the like."
"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."
"All the most prominent Darwinists proclaim naturalistic philosophy when they think it safe to do so."