Re: Wiki edit for the Phillip Johnson page

On 8/4/2024 4:04 PM, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:

On 2024-08-04 18:25:54 +0000, RonO said:
 

The Phillip Johnson wiki page has been edited and the quote from the Berkeley Science Review where he admitted that there was no theory of intelligent design has been removed.

 This was done on 18th June at 23.31 (one of many edits he did that day) by an editor whose user name is GuardianH. Many of his edits are quite sensible so I wonder if this was just a mistake. Anyway, I have written to him asking him to explain. I'll let you know if anything useful emerges.

As far as I know Phillip Johnson never contested what was in the article, nor retracted what he had said.
Around that time the ID perps held a 15 year anniversary celebration for Johnson's book Darwin on Trial, and Johnson did not participate.  At the time I thought that it was strange that Johnson would not acknowledge something done in his honor, but then this article started to be quoted and it looked like Johnson had quit supporting teaching ID in the public schools.
Johnson had sat in the courtroom every day and witnessed the difference between real science (what he wanted to denigrate as "Darwinism") and the ID scam, and he probably finally understood why the bait and switch had been going down for the previous 3 years, and why the other ID perps had given up on teaching ID as part of the Wedge strategy.
I think that Johnson was likely misled by the other ID perps.  They obviously didn't tell him that they were going to run the bait and switch scam on the Ohio rubes or he would not have come out as supporting teaching ID there back in 2002.  Willful ignorance probably allowed him to continue on, and support teaching ID in Dover when the other ID perps were trying to get the Dover rubes to not teach the junk.   He and Santorum both had, had the bait and switch run on them in Ohio, but both of them still supported teaching ID in Dover.  It is sort of nuts that neither of them understood why the bait and switch had to go down in every single case where creationists wanted to teach ID.  No one had gotten the ID science to teach for 3 years of trying, and yet both Johnson and Santorum still supported the Wedge strategy when it was obvious that most of the other ID perps did not support teaching the junk in Dover.
The ID perps are still selling the teach ID scam, but They claimed that they did not support teaching ID in the public schools when the West Virginia legislation passed, and they were not "requiring" ID to be taught.  After Dover the ID perps started to claim that the Judges decision was wrong, and that ID could still be taught in the public schools, but they did not want ID "required" to be taught.  This was found to be a lie back in 2013 when both Louisiana and Texas wanted ID taught in the public schools, but neither state was "requiring" it to be taught.  The bait and switch went down anyway, so the "requiring" modifier was never needed.
Ron Okimoto

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This is the WayBack link that works:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070609131601/http://sciencereview.berkeley.edu/articles.php?issue=10&article=evolution
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QUOTE:
I also don’t think that there is really a theory of intelligent design
at the present time to propose as a comparable alternative to the
Darwinian theory, which is, whatever errors it might contain, a fully
worked out scheme. There is no intelligent design theory that’s
comparable. Working out a positive theory is the job of the scientific
people that we have affiliated with the movement. Some of them are quite
convinced that it’s doable, but that’s for them to prove…No product is
ready for competition in the educational world.
END QUOTE:
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Johnson made the admission in 2006 after the Dover fiasco.  The ID perps tried to run the bait and switch on the Dover creationist rubes, but the ID perp responsible for making sure that the bait and switch went down dropped the ball, and did not follow up after telling the Dover rubes not to teach intelligent design, but they should try the obfuscation and denial switch scam instead.  The Dover rubes did not take his advice and tried to teach the junk anyways.  Phillip Johnson had, had the bait and switch run on him the first time in 2002 in Ohio.  Both He and then senator Santorum were all for getting ID taught in the Ohio public schools, but Meyer, Wells and a few others decided to start running the bait and switch instead of giving the rubes any ID science to teach (Wells included the decision to start running the bait and switch in his report on the Ohio fiasco).  The bait and switch went down on every group of creationist rubes that wanted to teach the scam junk for the next 3 years, but Johnson still came forward and supported teaching the ID scam junk in Dover.  He sat in the court room every day of testimony, and after that experience gave the Berkeley Science Review interview.
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The quote has been removed from the wiki artlcle for some reason.  It isn't controversial.  Johnson never claimed otherwise.  After publication I think that the Panda's Thumb was the first discussion group to put up the Johnson admission, and as far as I know Johnson never changed his mind.
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Ron Okimoto