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.

Is there any response about the edit.  The Johnson capitulation seems to be required for historical accuracy and closure for Philip Johnson's participation in the ID scam.  As far as I know Johnson never retracted his last statements about the failure of the ID creationist scam.  He made the admission after sitting in the court room every day and observing first hand how sad their attempt had been.  The ID perps never had the science that they had gotten Johnson to believe that they had to get the issue into the public schools.  Johnson had built the Wedge strategy around the belief that there was something real to use as the wedge.  One of the 5 year goals listed in the Wedge document was to get 10 states to teach intelligent design.  If the ID perps had actually had anything worth teaching they would have likely accomplished that 5 year goal, but they started running the bait and switch on the creationist rubes and refused to give them any ID science to teach in the public schools in 2002.  When Dover hit the fan the ID perps were still selling the teach ID scam, but always ran the bait and switch and the rubes only got their obfuscation and denial switch scam.  They tried to run the bait and switch on Dover, but failed and the ID perp who's job it was to perpetrate the switch failed to follow up on his advice that the Dover rubes not teach ID, but look into the obfuscation and denial switch scam, and the Dover rubes tried to teach ID anyway, and tried to use Of Pandas and People to teach the junk just like the ID perps were recommending.  Phillip Johnson supported teaching ID in Dover.  The ID perps had a list of creationist legislators and school boards that they claimed had adopted the switch scam or were still considering adopting the switch scam. There were probably over 20 examples on that list, and Ohio was the only one that had adopted the switch scam junk at that time.  Most of the others had dropped the issue when the bait and switch went down.  I recall only Louisiana and Texas as adopting the switch scam after Dover, but Tennessee gets mentioned in some articles.  I've never heard of Tennessee doing anything about the switch scam in their public schools.
The quote belongs in the Johnson wiki.  I found several examples where it had been quoted after publication, and no evidence of retraction by Johnson.
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
>
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