Talk:Darwin on Trial
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[edit] The paid agenda behind Johnson and his book
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- Talking about money, there is interesting controversy surrounding the funding of the Discovery Institute - see below. Ian Pitchford 13:39, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
From Genesis To Dominion Fat-Cat Theocrat Funds Creationism Crusade by Steve Benen Americans United for Separation of Church and State from: Church & State, July/August 2000
Anti-evolution crusader Phillip Johnson, dedicated his 1997 book, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds, to "Roberta and Howard, who understood 'the wedge' because they love the Truth."
The mysterious reference is apparently a note of thanks to Howard F. Ahmanson Jr. and his wife Roberta, a wealthy and secretive Orange County, Calif., couple who have generously funded the anti-evolution movement and other right-wing causes that advance their fundamentalist Christian outlook.
Howard Ahmanson, however, is no ordinary fat-cat. The savings and loan heir has maintained a long-time relationship with Christian Reconstructionism, an extreme faction of the Religious Right that seeks to replace American democracy with a harsh fundamentalist theocracy.
Reconstructionists believe conservative Christians should take "dominion" over American society. Under their version of "biblical law," the death penalty would be required for over a dozen categories of offenders, including adulterers, homosexuals, witches, incorrigible children and those who spread "false" religions. They regard the teaching of evolution as part of a "war against Genesis."
Ahmanson served for over two decades on the board of directors of the Chalcedon Foundation, Rousas J. Rushdoony's Reconstructionist think tank that serves as the intellectual center of the movement. Ahmanson has also generously supported the Foundation's work.
As for Ahmanson's interests in opposing evolution, his relationship with leaders such as Johnson raises a series of questions about how the movement to "defeat" evolution is paid for and what the larger agenda might be.
There is little doubt that the Ahmansons have the resources to help finance anti-evolution efforts. The family's wealth grew exponentially during the 1950s and '60s when Howard Ahmanson Sr, made billions in the savings and loan industry. After his death, his estate was divided between his son Howard F. Ahmanson and the Ahmanson Foundation, which had $663 million in assets at the end of 1996. (H.F. Ahmanson & Co., the parent company of Home Savings of America, had over $47 billion in assets in 1997.)
With a vast fortune in hand, the Ahmansons are playing an active role in ensuring the anti-evolution movement's success.
According to Reason magazine, promotional materials from the Seattle-based Discovery Institute acknowledge that the Ahmanson family donated $1.5 million to the Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture for a research and publicity program to "unseat not just Darwinism but also Darwinism's cultural legacy." In fact, the August 1999 issue of the Discovery Institute's Journal recognizes an Ahmanson outfit for providing the Center's start-up funds.
With such high-powered assistance, the Center has quickly become a leading anti-evolution organization. The center's senior fellows include some of the highest profile advocates of "Intelligent Design" creationism, including David Berlinski, William Dembski and Michael Behe. Johnson himself is listed among the center's two official advisors.
Additionally, Roberta Green Ahmanson provided the funding for Dembski to appear at her alma mater, Calvin College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan, to promote his approach to attacking evolution. Although he claims to be interested only in the scientific "evidence" against evolution, Dembski's appearance was listed as part of the college's "Seminars in Christian Scholarship."
Funding from the Ahmansons is not always obvious. For example, the Fieldstead Institute is an extension of the Ahmanson empire, which frequently provides financial support for creationist causes. Dembski's appearance at Calvin was sponsored by a group called Fieldstead and Company. (Both appear to derive their name from Howard's middle name, Fieldstead.)
Ahmanson has also taken an interest in providing money for other political causes, including support for voucher subsidies for religious schools and opposition to gay rights and pornography. In the January/February 1997 issue of Religion & Liberty, published by the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, he argued that the Bible opposes minimum wage laws.
Ahmanson's opposition to evolution remains part of his larger agenda of establishing a fundamentalist "Christian nation." In the coming years, as different groups and personalities step into the anti-evolution fray, Ahmanson's role bears watching.
[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Darwin on Trial.jpg
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[edit] Publication date?
This web page – IVP – Darwin on Trial – by the publisher (InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA) gives publication date of 1st edn. as 1992, 2nd edn. as December 1993: it's not uncommon for books to be printed showing a date earlier than the actual publication date, so it might be printed as 1991 but actually published early in 1992. Comment? ... dave souza, talk 21:56, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Article's Crtiticism
The opening paragraph of the sub-section "Criticisms" seems very out of place. It reads as follows: "Critics suggest that Johnson is neither impartial nor open-minded. Evolution is accepted by the vast majority of the scientific community, including many theists who regard intelligent design as unscientific. They argue that Johnson reiterates many creationist arguments that are simply false, uses a God of the gaps argument, relies on equivocation, presents straw man version of mainstream scientific thought, and generally uses typical lawyers' "tricks" of argumentation." Whoever made this edit did not back it up with any of the listed references that I see, sounds very one-sided and unecessarily critical, and was overall foolish in their argument. For example the sub-section states that the author "reitterates creationist arguments that are simply false" while not applying said arguments elsewhere in the article; and, stating that he "uses the God of gaps argument" while Phillip Johnson has made it exceedingly clear that he does not take a formal stand on the age of the earth. I was going to simply remove this part of the article, but realizing its size I decided to post the preceeding message in the discussion area here. If you have anything to say including oppositing to the paragraph's deletion please make it clear.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Justtheinformation (talk • contribs) 08:44, 28 June 2007
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- God of the gaps has nothing to do with "a formal stand on the age of the earth."
- The list of critical reviews provide numerous examples of where "Johnson reiterates many creationist arguments that are simply false," e.g.[1]:
So Johnson includes the usual "gaps in the fossil record," "natural selection is a tautology," "there are no transitional fossils," "mutations are harmful," "natural selection is not creative," "microevolution does not explain macroevolution," "natural selection only produces variation within the kind," and the vertebrate eye and the argument from design, just as in any standard Institute for Creation Research (ICR) tract. Those of you who are up on creationist literature will be unsurprised to hear that Johnson even tells the tired old Colin Patterson/ American Museum of Natural History story, as an example of the "conspiracy" of scientists to "protect" Darwinism from criticism (See Reports 12(4):14-15.)
- I would suggest that this paragraph is well-substantiated. Hrafn42 09:58, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
This is why I along with many other people don't even use wikipedia as a credible reference source. This article isn't even pretending to be objective on the topic.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Holmes245 (talk • contribs) 17:38, 30 July 2007
- Ur youse tryin tae be objective? . . . ;) . . . dave souza, talk 19:04, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Is this for real?
I literally did a double-take when I read:
" ... sexual selection, of which he asks, why would an 'uncaring mechanical process' (natural selection) 'produce a species whose females lust for males with life-threatening decorations?'"
I would almost think this was a citation out of context, because the dumbfounded answer would be: "Why would a DESIGN process produce a species whose females lust for males with life-threatening decorations?!" MrG 4.228.21.246 (talk) 02:01, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] WP:UNDUE
The 'criticism' section is way too vague and general, and means that the article gives WP:UNDUE weight to Johnson's claims (contained in the far longer 'Overview' section). There are plenty of criticisms listed in the ELs, I'll have a go at working them into the article at some stage. HrafnTalkStalk 15:57, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
