Agnostic Mom

I’ve been learning about Phillip E. Johnson, one of the founders of the Intelligent Design Creationist movement, and now I know it’s a lot more dire than I realized. My argument has been that people are accepting the idea of ID, and requesting that it be taught alongside Evolution, because they do not understand the definition of science, its goals, and how it works (the Scientific Method).

As it turns out, that is exactly the goal of the ID movement. They are trying to change the definition of science. Johnson wants to replace the standard methodology of discovering truth through tests and observations, with what he calls, Theistic Realism, where the seeking of knowledge is based first on the acknowledgement that God created the universe.

If you’re not convince that ID is religion in disguise, take a look at the strategies that Johnson laid out for the promotion of ID.

* “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.”

* “This isn’t really, and never has been a debate about science. It’s about religion and philosophy.

* “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.’”

* “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.”

For links to the actual sources of the quotes by Johnson, go to Wikipedia, where I copied them from. Their links will take you straight to the sources, where you will see firsthand on these Christian websites how these people really think. It’s scary!!!

There is a serious battle going on. I think they are already winning in terms of convincing people that it’s about “academic freedom” and that people need to see “both sides” so they can “decide for themselves.” They may not be winning in the courts to get their doctrine into the science books, but they’re convincing the minds of the majority that this is a logical debate in the first place.

They have a unified front. They have a clear mission. They have the passion, the drive, and apparently the money.

This is what we’re up against.