Phillip E. Johnson - Biography

Biography

Johnson was born in Aurora, Illinois in 1940. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature, from Harvard University in 1961. He studied law at the University of Chicago, graduating top of his class. He served as a law clerk for the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court Earl Warren and Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court Roger Traynor. Johnson became a member of the California Bar in January 1966. He is an emeritus professor of law at Boalt School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served on the active faculty from 1967 to 2000. Johnson has served as deputy district attorney and has held visiting professorships at Emory University and at University College, London.

Johnson became a born-again Christian following a divorce, and later became an elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Johnson recounts that on sabbatical in England he sought, through prayer, inspiration for what he should do with the rest of his life, and then received an epiphany after he read Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker and Michael Denton's Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. Johnson later said, "Something about the Darwinists' rhetorical style, made me think they had something to hide." Despite having no formal background in biology, he has become a prominent critic of evolutionary theory.

Johnson popularized the term "intelligent design" in his 1991 book, Darwin on Trial. He remains one of the best known advocates for intelligent design, and is considered the founder of the Intelligent Design Movement. He is a critic of methodological naturalism, the basic principle of science that restricts it to the investigation of natural causes for observable phenomena, and espouses a philosophy he has coined theistic realism. He is the author of several books on intelligent design, science, philosophy, and religion, as well as textbooks on criminal law. He has appeared on various programs such as PBS's Firing Line and NOVA's Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial.

Since 2001, Johnson has suffered a series of minor right brain strokes. His rehabilitations have limited his public activities and participation in the debate on intelligent design, because of both their physical effects and Johnson's belief that they were signs from God urging him to spend more time with his faith and family and less in "prideful debate". In 2004 he was awarded the inaugural "Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth" by Biola University, a private evangelical Christian college noted for its promotion of intelligent design. Johnson has two children and lives with his wife in Berkeley, California.

In 2006 Nancey Murphy, a religious scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary, stated she faced a campaign to get her fired after she expressed her view that intelligent design was not only poor theology, but "so stupid, I don't want to give them my time." Murphy, who accepts the validity of evolution, said that Johnson called a trustee in an attempt to get her fired and stated "His tactic has always been to fight dirty when anyone attacks his ideas". Johnson admits calling the trustee, but denies any responsibility for action taken against her. He said: "It's the Darwinists who hold the power in academia and who threaten the professional status and livelihoods of anyone who disagrees... They feel to teach anything but their orthodoxy is an act of professional treason." Murphy had previously criticized Johnson's book Darwin on Trial for being "dogmatic and unconvincing", primarily because "he does not adequately understand scientific reasoning."

During the 1990s Johnson engaged in AIDS denialism, challenging the scientific consensus by claiming that HIV tests do not detect HIV, AIDS statistics are grossly exaggerated and that HIV is the cause of AIDS. writing several articles about the subject, including a piece in Reason. He was one of the 12 founding members of the "Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis" and signatory to the group's letter to the editor of Science asserting that HIV is only tautologically associated with AIDS and that HIV tests are inaccurate.

Johnson has stated in an interview that he believed "the strength of America is not in its towers or in its battleships, it's in its faith. Of course, I said that, but I wasn't sure it was really true anymore. This isn't the same country we were in the previous decades." Johnson said the U.S. was "cringing in fear" of Muslim terrorists after September 11 attacks and that professors were afraid to discuss it "because they're afraid of what the Muslim students will do. They're afraid it won't keep the peace on campus. I never thought our country would descend to this level. We are afraid to search the truth and to proclaim it. We once knew who the true God was and were able to proclaim it frankly. But since about 1960 we've been hiding from that. We've been trying to pretend that all religions are the same."