Phillip E. Johnson

Phillip E. Johnson (June 18, 1940 – November 2, 2019)^[1] was a UC Berkeley law professor, opponent of evolutionary science, co-founder of the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement, author of the "Wedge strategy" and co-founder of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture (CSC). He described himself as "in a sense the father of the intelligent design movement".^[2] He was a critic of Darwinism, which he described as "fully naturalistic evolution, involving chance mechanisms and natural selection".^[3] The wedge strategy aims to change public opinion and scientific consensus, and seeks to convince the scientific community to allow a role for theism, or causes beyond naturalistic explanation, in scientific discourse.^[4] Johnson argued that scientists accepted the theory of evolution "before it was rigorously tested, and thereafter used all their authority to convince the public that naturalistic processes are sufficient to produce a human from a bacterium, and a bacterium from a mix of chemicals."^[5]

The scientific community considers Johnson's defense of intelligent design to be pseudoscientific.^[6][7][8][9]