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Product Review Summary: Radical philosophical materialism and Darwinism I was hoping for more evidence to use to confront Darwinism with reason and science. Instead, it seems what Johnson has written is the outline for that book, with an introduction to the radical philosophical materialism of Darwinism, and the fissure that the wedge of DNA opens in the scientific monolith protected by force of law and public ridicule from the scientific community.
DNA encodes information. Information is organization, not material. It represents design. Design assumes intelligence, not evolution through natural selection of random mutations.
Perhaps Johnson only presents an outline-level argument because this book, written in 1996, appeared at the beginning of the DNA revolution, as more and faster computing power began to decode the DNA databases that exist in and all around us. I wonder if he or other authors have an updated argument based on the same line of reasoning based on where we are in 2008?
Johnson summarizes his philosophical argument to this question: "What should we do if empirical evidence and materialist philosophy are going in different directions?" (p. 114). Judging by the visceral ad hominem attacks that have accompanied my reviews (soon to include this one) that say anything positive about creationism or Christianity in relation to science, this line of questioning is hitting close to the heart of the matter--and provides a hint to the answer . The suggested tags available when I wrote this review provide the rest of the answer:
breathtaking inanity, anti-science, turd sandwhich, intelligent design, science, evolution, christian, darwin, crackpottery
Product Review Summary: We are done with dogma The phenomena of dogma is what keeps people from buying into a philosophy, be it religious, political, or scientific in nature. I enjoyed reading this book, having purchased it 2 days ago and finishing it last night. It is eight chapters long, 120 pages, and not overly technical. The author knows his subject and explains it clearly and wisely. This is not another intransigent one-sided dogma pusher. Rather, the author strives for a mature frame of mind with a relaxed grip on the facts in order to remain open for new information and advises the same for us all whether we be for or against Darwinism.
When the dust settles from the current passionate debate on the subject of Darwinism, what will we be left with and how should we approach the material in the meantime? Why do some 90% of Americans still have difficulty believing that evolution is a fact? Why are the rankings of this book so polarized? What is going on here?
I enjoyed the author's insights into the play, Inherit the Wind, which as you know was about the famed Scopes monkey trial. The play was a distortion of a real life event and those distorted views cloud our thinking even today.
Even the definition of evolution gets distorted in today's world. I think this book will guide you in selecting a world view that makes sense to you and not imposed upon you by authority. Reasoning from the available evidence is what science and the search for ultimate truth is all about - we needn't unconsciously pattern our dialogue after a play written many years ago.
This book is a hopeful book about advancing the truth wherever it takes us.
Product Review Summary: No real content here. Johnson never gets to the details of his arguments. The book is simply an attempt to shove Christianity onto science. He starts out insisting that God belongs in science without really saying why. He never points out an area of science that needs God, except he keeps mentioning evolution in that connection. But the lack of details makes this book unconvincing even for its intended audience. If this is the best creationists have to offer, science has nothing to worry about (except the stupid, ignorant public). The book amounts to one long, boring whine. He shows you can write competently without actually having a brain.
Product Review Summary: Poorly written propaganda I just picked this up in a library book sale and I must say that I wish I had my $0.15 back. It looks like there's at least one fallacy or falsehood on every page. Johnson briefly addresses some fallacies he thinks he's encountered in dealing with scientists, but somehow he fails to see that the very same fallacies permeate his writing. I've seen more coherent and eloquent arguments for creationism on free websites. I'm no longer a creationist and I'm convinced that creationism in our times is essentially a conjecture based on ignorance and faulty reasoning. But even if I was still a creationist, I think I would be disappointed by the dumbed-down approach of the book.
Product Review Summary: Perhaps the most dispiriting book I have ever read Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds by Philip Johnson is a total sham of a book. If it were possible to give this minus five stars it would still be insufficient to describe how dreadful this book really is. Johnson never has any intention of opening minds in this book except to get them to accept religion and reject science. Otherwise the intention is to nail them shut against any possibility that God never did have anything to do with creation or the universe and most likely never existed in the first place. All claims that this book offers a balanced argument should be dismissed from this point forward.
Johnson, a lawyer by trade, has not a single science qualification to his name. That has not prevented him writing upon a subject of which he is largely ignorant. His understanding of science is partial in the extreme and wholly dependent upon a vast swathe of misconceptions, sweeping assertions, selective presentations of the facts and in places, outright lies. Particularly despicable is the twisting he inflicts upon Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit which Johnson has taken from Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World". Johnson is careful not to apply his twisted version of Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit to his own writing for to do so would expose the vacuous level of his own thinking.
At the bottom of Johnson's view of our existence is the assertion that God did it. Such assertions have only the intention of appealing to those who already have a bias against science who wish to have that bias reinforced. In this respect Johnson become their hero. It would be impossible in this review to highlight all of the things Johnson get wrong, misrepresents or lies about, so I have selected just four, although it would be possible to select four hundred more.
Pg 94 We know that the Darwinian mechanism doesn't work and that complex biological system never were put together by the accumulation of random mutations through natural selection.
Johnson makes this assertion without any evidence to back it up. All attempts made by the ID brigade since the publication of this book to demonstrate what they alone term, irreducible complexity have completely failed. Initally only one example was ever forthcoming, the bacterial flagellum, and the research accompanying it was shown to be wrong and not an explanation of the flagellum's structure. The same people have since suggested the human eye and the human immune system are irreducibly complex but again have failed to show how whilst research has shown their claims to be entirely false.
Pg. 113 Darwinism in the west is in much the same condition as was Soviet Marxism in its days. Its power and prestige rest not on any real scientific accomplishments but on the theory's role in upholding the ruling philosophy.
Apart from the fallacious linkage the charge of no scientific accomplishment is utterly wrong and a blatant lie. There is overwhelming evidence of the scientific achievements available in every public library. Darwin's work made possible the discovery of DNA and the genetic code that today is making a revolution in medical treatment. Johnson however will not acknowledge any of this for to do so would destroy his position.
Johnson has no intention of being honest with his readers. He is deliberately writing to deceive those who are not in a position to pull his lacklustre posturing to pieces. For this reason the writing style is not an academic one, but one that starts like a friendly chat before going on to become a thinly veiled polemic.
Pg. 114 The biologists are at each throats in private, fighting over every detail in the Darwinist scientific program.
This is Johnson's complete misrepresentation of the scientific method which requires that scientists lay their work open to attempts by others to falsify it. Johnson however twists the process to make it seem as if disagreement means a theory, in this case evolution, is false or unworkable. The only thing false is Johnson for it is his deliberate twisting that is designed to mislead the reader.
Not content with lies, misrepresentations and fact twisting, Johnson attempts to portray scientists as purveyors of a harsh soulless enterprise.
Pg. 96 There can be no science of value, or of beauty or of goodness.
That so much of the legacy of science has already improved human life is not even mentioned. That a world of near infinite beauty has been opened up in biology with human genome project matters not a jot for a man determined to put his God at the centre of creation. Stop looking for scientific answers is his message. We have the Bible. We know better than you do. Sorry Johnson. You don't know better and you are peddling ignorance.
That this book is nearly devoid of footnote references is not surprising. There must be few publications anywhere from which unadulterated quotes can be taken to back up Johnson's position. Rather Johnson turns the notes section into a diatribe for his rhetoric and opinions thus rendering even this section of the book utterly worthless.
Defeating Darwinism is a awful book. If the subject matter had been a living individual as opposed to current science Johnson would more likely than not have sued for libel and deformation of character. But because his target is science Johnson manages to duck under that hurdle. This book will appeal only if you think ID is credible, otherwise it will be a dire read. However, if you are a genetic scientist or paleontologist, get a copy to see the sort of bigotry your years of hard work earns in the minds of those who are determined to replace understanding and science with dark-age theology. You need to know how to answer these people and that is the only benefit of this otherwise awful book: Johnson has at least done us all the service of putting theism's position on paper complete with its dodgy rhetoric and outright lies so it can be challenged and answered.
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