Albion

The second link I gave you is from last year. Theyeti has given it to you again (The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth?); it's a very astute article about Johnson's debating tactics.

The consensus seems to be that his position hasn't changed over the last several years and that this makes things worse for him because early on he could at least be given the benefit of the doubt that he was arguing from ignorance of how evolutionary biology works whereas now he's had long enough to find out if he wants to (but apparently either he doesn't want to or he's lying).

theyeti

One thing I forgot to mention and wanted to add in edit (but can't because stupid board rules won't let you edit after a certain time) is that Johnson gets almost all of his antievolutionist arguments from Michael Denton's 1986 book, Evolution, a Theory in Crisis. Johnson even reproduces Denton's fallacious molecular phylogenetics argument. A good comparison between the two can be found in the postscript of Korthof's review of DoT (first link I gave above).

The irony is that Denton himself has repudiated his arguments from Evolution, a Theory in Crisis, and now accepts fully natural evolution! If you want to zing Johnson with a question, you might want to ask him why the one person who he borrowed most of his arguments from no longer believes that they are legit.

theyeti

Gooch's dad

To what degree can Johnson be connected with the antics of Howard Ahmanson and the Christian Reconstructionists? Those are the whackos who want to totally implement Old Testament law in the US. Scary folks, although I'm not sure too many people in Texas would find that scary.

theyeti

Ahmanson provided the start-up funds for the Discovery Institute's C(R)SC, and I believe he remains their biggest supporter. Johnson also dedicated one of his books to Ahmanson. Whether or not Johnson favors reconstructionism, who can say? It's abundantly clear that he's not bothered enough by Ahmanson's reconstructionist history to refuse his money though. The fact that he's willing to ally himself with such people is pretty telling IMO.

Here's a reprint of a recent newspaper article:

Heir spends family fortune to discredit evolution theory.

And an article from Americans United for Separation of Church and State:

From Genesis To Dominion: Fat-Cat Theocrat Funds Creationism Crusade.

Here's an example of someone who would not accept Ahmanson's money because of his radical views:

Governor-elect Linda Lingle Returns $3,000 to Christian Supremacists.

Apparently that takes a bit more ethical backbone than the likes of Philip Johnson can muster.

theyeti

pz

I find this comment particularly irritating:
It is clearly inappropriate to invite them to present their garbage in any public or scientific forum -- even when their nonsense is ridiculed and dismissed and refuted, they pretend it is a victory.

pangloss

It was my repeated posting of one of those articles on ARN that got mer banned long ago...

They called it 'ad hominem'....

KC

In creato-speak, 'ad hominem' has several meanings, depending on how badly they are losing the argument.

KC