Is this ‘intelligent design’?
(D Roberts/Science photo library)
Philip Johnson
Phillip
E Johnson has seen the truth – and it's intelligent. The intelligent
design movement he's been spearheading for over a decade disagrees
that science is the best way of explaining how things are. And
it takes particular aim at evolutionary science, which says that
all the creatures on earth got to be the way they are through
a series of random mutations.
So what does Johnson's intelligent design have to offer in place
of modern science? In short, the idea that life on earth was deliberately
designed by an intelligent agent. Johnson makes no explicit claims
about the identity of this agent, but be aware that we're not
talking about the X-Files here. He means God, plain and simple.
Noah invited dinosaurs on the Arc. God changed Eve's chromosomes
to make her into a woman. That kind of thing.
The hip-sounding 'intelligent design' moniker was coined after
creationism was outlawed in the US in 1987. But the movement is
still associated with conservative Christians, a religious right
that sees itself as battling with heathen science for the heart
of America. Watch out for Johnson in the vanguard.
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