Phillip E. Johnson Quotes
A constitutional democracy is in serious trouble if its citizenry does not have a certain degree of education and civic virtue.
Johnson, Phillip E. Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education. InterVarsity Press, 1995, p. 152.
“Societies” were volunteer community associations formed for the purpose of monitoring the public officials and legislatures and recommending things. They would invite speakers and exchange political knowledge. They performed many of the functions that think tanks and local political parties do in modern times, but generally they were totally non-partisan—hence they were “disinterested”.
Phillip E. Johnson was a UC Berkeley law professor, opponent of evolutionary science, co-founder of the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement, author of the "Wedge strategy" and co-founder of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture (CSC) . He described himself as "in a sense the father of the intelligent design movement". He was a critic of Darwinism, which he described as "fully naturalistic evolution, involving chance mechanisms and natural selection". The wedge strategy aims to change public opinion and scientific consensus, and seeks to convince the scientific community to allow a role for theism, or causes beyond naturalistic explanation, in scientific discourse. Johnson argued that scientists accepted the theory of evolution "before it was rigorously tested, and thereafter used all their authority to convince the public that naturalistic processes are sufficient to produce a human from a bacterium, and a bacterium from a mix of chemicals."
