Rating: 
Summary: Vintage Johnson
Review: Phillip Johnson's The Wedge of Truth may be his most insightful book yet. His trenchant critique of philosophical naturalism, especially when it is disguised as empirical science, has helped start an intellectual movement. In this book, he purifies that critique, reducing it to a simple, irresistible question: What if science, defined as the search for truth based on evidence about the natural world, conflicts with science as defined (materialistically) as the search for *naturalistic* explanations about the natural world? The "Wedge" metaphor, in the domain of science, is precisely the attempt to split apart these two definitions of science. Once the question is seriously considered, the genie is out of the bottle. No one not already committed to naturalism (whether philosophical or methodological) has any trouble knowing how to answer the question. The only ways to avoid its implications are to play definition games and assert raw power over those who ask it. We should expect much of both these tactics from Johnson's critics.Of course, this book asks a number of other probing questions, all of which Johnson argues should be fair game in the public square, at least in any society that dares call itself democratic. To discover those other questions, buy the book!
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Summary: The Berkeley Gadfly strikes again.
Review: Phillip Johnson's Wedge of Truth is a must read for anyone wanting to keep abreast of the debate between the evolutionary establishment and proponents of intelligent design, whom he dubs "The Wedge." This is news from the front in the culture war over the rules for doing science, and Johnson analyzes the arguments of his critics, Kenneth Miller and Robert Pennock, with surgical precision. As always, Johnson is lucid, confident, and witty.
Rating:
Summary: 'Tis but a scratch.
Review: Reading Wedge of Truth, and then reading the reviews here and on the Internet, I am reminded of King Arthur's encounter with the Black Knight in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The Black Knight will not let Arthur cross a bridge, they have sword fight, Arthur lops off the Black Knight's left arm. Arthur says "Now stand aside, worthy adversary." And the Black Knight reply's is "'Tis but a scratch." If you have read Kuhn's Stucture of Scientific revolutions, you know that even with the devastating arguments Wedge of Truth brings to bear, that the true believers of evolution will take their beliefs with them to the grave. The blow Johnson delivers in Wedge of truth is uncovering the way scientists have over reached their authority by saying that since scientists only deal with the material that the material world is all there is. Johnson exposes the unprovable and usually unquestioned foundations that under gird evolution. Arthur- What are you going to do, bleed on me? Black Knight- I'm invincible!
Rating: 
Summary: Phillip E's end-run
Review: The Newest Evolution of Creationism
Intelligent design is about politics and religion, not science.
By Barbara Forrest Intelligent Design (ID) proponents put most of their effort in swaying politicians and the public. The infamous August 1999 decision by the Kansas Board of Education to delete references to evolution from Kansas science standards was heavily influenced by advocates of intelligent-design theory. Although William A. Dembski, one of the movement's leading figures, asserts that "the empirical detectability of intelligent causes renders intelligent design a fully scientific theory," its proponents invest most of their efforts in swaying politicians and the public, not the scientific community. The leading ID organization is the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC). Launched by Phillip E. Johnson's book Darwin on Trial (1991), the intelligent-design movement crystallized in 1996 as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC), sponsored by the Discovery Institute, a conservative Seattle think tank. Johnson, a law professor whose religious conversion catalyzed his antievolution efforts, assembled a group of supporters who promote design theory through their writings, financed by CRSC fellowships. According to an early mission statement, the CRSC seeks "nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its damning cultural legacies." The CRSC calls its strategy the "Wedge," because it wants to liberate science from "atheistic naturalism." Johnson refers to the CRSC members and their strategy as the Wedge, analogous to a wedge that splits a log -- meaning that intelligent design will liberate science from the grip of "atheistic naturalism." Ten years of Wedge history reveal its most salient features: Wedge scientists have no empirical research program and, consequently, have published no data in peer-reviewed journals (or elsewhere) to support their intelligent-design claims. But they do have an aggressive public relations program, which includes conferences that they or their supporters organize, popular books and articles, recruitment of students through university lectures sponsored by campus ministries, and cultivation of alliances with conservative Christians and influential political figures. Philip E. Johnson: "This isn't really, and never has been, a debate about science. It's about religion and philosophy." The Wedge aims to "renew" American culture by grounding society's major institutions, especially education, in evangelical religion. In 1996, Johnson declared: "This isn't really, and never has been, a debate about science. It's about religion and philosophy." According to Dembski, intelligent design "is just the Logos of John's Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory." Wedge strategists seek to unify Christians through a shared belief in "mere" creation, aiming -- in Dembski's words -- "at defeating naturalism and its consequences." This enables intelligent-design proponents to coexist in a big tent with other creationists who explicitly base their beliefs on a literal interpretation of Genesis. At heart, ID proponents are not motivated to improve science but to transform it into a theistic enterprise. "As Christians," writes Dembski, "we know naturalism is false. Nature is not self-sufficient. ... Nonetheless neither theology nor philosophy can answer the evidential question whether God's interaction with the world is empirically detectable. To answer this question we must look to science." Jonathan Wells, a biologist, and Michael J. Behe, a biochemist, seem just the CRSC fellows to give intelligent design the ticket to credibility. Yet neither has actually done research to test the theory, much less produced data that challenges the massive evidence accumulated by biologists, geologists, and other evolutionary scientists. Wells, influenced in part by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon, earned Ph.D.'s in religious studies and biology specifically "to devote my life to destroying Darwinism." Behe sees the relevant question as whether "science can make room for religion." At heart, proponents of intelligent design are not motivated to improve science but to transform it into a theistic enterprise that supports religious faith. The ID movement is advancing its strategy but its tactics are no substitute for real science. Wedge supporters are at present trying to insert intelligent design into Ohio public-school science standards through state legislation. Earlier the CRSC advertised its science education site by assuring teachers that its "Web curriculum can be appropriated without textbook adoption wars" -- in effect encouraging teachers to do an end run around standard procedures. Anticipating a test case, the Wedge published in the Utah Law Review a legal strategy for winning judicial sanction. Recently the group almost succeeded in inserting into the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 a "sense of the Senate" that supported the teaching of intelligent design. So the movement is advancing, but its tactics are no substitute for real science.
Rating:
Summary: guidebook for a political movement
Review: The Newest Evolution of Creationism
Intelligent design is about politics and religion, not science.
By Barbara Forrest Intelligent Design (ID) proponents put most of their effort in swaying politicians and the public. The infamous August 1999 decision by the Kansas Board of Education to delete references to evolution from Kansas science standards was heavily influenced by advocates of intelligent-design theory. Although William A. Dembski, one of the movement's leading figures, asserts that "the empirical detectability of intelligent causes renders intelligent design a fully scientific theory," its proponents invest most of their efforts in swaying politicians and the public, not the scientific community. The leading ID organization is the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC). Launched by Phillip E. Johnson's book Darwin on Trial (1991), the intelligent-design movement crystallized in 1996 as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC), sponsored by the Discovery Institute, a conservative Seattle think tank. Johnson, a law professor whose religious conversion catalyzed his antievolution efforts, assembled a group of supporters who promote design theory through their writings, financed by CRSC fellowships. According to an early mission statement, the CRSC seeks "nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its damning cultural legacies." The CRSC calls its strategy the "Wedge," because it wants to liberate science from "atheistic naturalism." Johnson refers to the CRSC members and their strategy as the Wedge, analogous to a wedge that splits a log -- meaning that intelligent design will liberate science from the grip of "atheistic naturalism." Ten years of Wedge history reveal its most salient features: Wedge scientists have no empirical research program and, consequently, have published no data in peer-reviewed journals (or elsewhere) to support their intelligent-design claims. But they do have an aggressive public relations program, which includes conferences that they or their supporters organize, popular books and articles, recruitment of students through university lectures sponsored by campus ministries, and cultivation of alliances with conservative Christians and influential political figures. Philip E. Johnson: "This isn't really, and never has been, a debate about science. It's about religion and philosophy." The Wedge aims to "renew" American culture by grounding society's major institutions, especially education, in evangelical religion. In 1996, Johnson declared: "This isn't really, and never has been, a debate about science. It's about religion and philosophy." According to Dembski, intelligent design "is just the Logos of John's Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory." Wedge strategists seek to unify Christians through a shared belief in "mere" creation, aiming -- in Dembski's words -- "at defeating naturalism and its consequences." This enables intelligent-design proponents to coexist in a big tent with other creationists who explicitly base their beliefs on a literal interpretation of Genesis. At heart, ID proponents are not motivated to improve science but to transform it into a theistic enterprise. "As Christians," writes Dembski, "we know naturalism is false. Nature is not self-sufficient. ... Nonetheless neither theology nor philosophy can answer the evidential question whether God's interaction with the world is empirically detectable. To answer this question we must look to science." Jonathan Wells, a biologist, and Michael J. Behe, a biochemist, seem just the CRSC fellows to give intelligent design the ticket to credibility. Yet neither has actually done research to test the theory, much less produced data that challenges the massive evidence accumulated by biologists, geologists, and other evolutionary scientists. Wells, influenced in part by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon, earned Ph.D.'s in religious studies and biology specifically "to devote my life to destroying Darwinism." Behe sees the relevant question as whether "science can make room for religion." At heart, proponents of intelligent design are not motivated to improve science but to transform it into a theistic enterprise that supports religious faith. The ID movement is advancing its strategy but its tactics are no substitute for real science. Wedge supporters are at present trying to insert intelligent design into Ohio public-school science standards through state legislation. Earlier the CRSC advertised its science education site by assuring teachers that its "Web curriculum can be appropriated without textbook adoption wars" -- in effect encouraging teachers to do an end run around standard procedures. Anticipating a test case, the Wedge published in the Utah Law Review a legal strategy for winning judicial sanction. Recently the group almost succeeded in inserting into the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 a "sense of the Senate" that supported the teaching of intelligent design. So the movement is advancing, but its tactics are no substitute for real science.
Rating: 
Summary: Clearly lays out the issues and presuppositions
Review: The Wedge of Truth is one of the better critiques of the presuppositions of most evolutionary theory today. Phillip Johnson brings out in a clear and concise manner the thought processes of many biologists and others who advocate an evolutionary understanding of biological and cosmological development. The key thought in this work is the hammering home of the notion that most science done today assumes a naturalistic outlook from the start, rather than attempting to accommodate other philosophical presuppositions. This has been Johnson's theme for some time now with respect to evolutionary thought, and this book lays his thinking out quite clearly. This is an excellent book for undergraduate students, as it is not so overly technical as to lose the reader, and yet it brings out the fact that there is a need to seriously re-think our approach to scientific statements with respect to origins.
Rating:
Summary: Clearly lays out the issues and presuppositions
Review: The Wedge of Truth is one of the better critiques of the presuppositions of most evolutionary theory today. Phillip Johnson brings out in a clear and concise manner the thought processes of many biologists and others who advocate an evolutionary understanding of biological and cosmological development. The key thought in this work is the hammering home of the notion that most science done today assumes a naturalistic outlook from the start, rather than attempting to accommodate other philosophical presuppositions. This has been Johnson's theme for some time now with respect to evolutionary thought, and this book lays his thinking out quite clearly. This is an excellent book for undergraduate students, as it is not so overly technical as to lose the reader, and yet it brings out the fact that there is a need to seriously re-think our approach to scientific statements with respect to origins.
Rating:
Summary: The Wedge Of Lies and Deceit Pertaining to Science
Review: The WEDGE OF TRUTH, Phillip Johnson's latest attack on evolutionary biology - and by implication, therefore all of science - is replete with factual omissions, distortions and sarcastic commentary on "naturalistic" science which I've unfortunately read elsewhere, most notably in DARWIN ON TRIAL. Once more Johnson deplores the fact that science refuses to consider supernatural explanations as part of its very essence; he refuses to acknowledge that scientists have good, sound reasons based on logic and rationalism to exclude the possibility of supernatural explanations for natural phenomena. Johnson argues that those who subscribe to "naturalistic" Darwinian evolutionary biology must inevitably be opposed to religion; however I know of at least two prominent biologists who see no conflict between their own devout personal beliefs in a Judeo-Christian GOD and their research in biology. Johnson fails to acknowledge the signficance of important evolutionary biological research by scientists such as Peter and Rosemary Grant; once more he dismisses the signficance of their research on Galapagos finches, which does demonstrate convincingly the importance of natural selection as the primary mechanism behind microevolution (Indeed, he fails to acknowledge important recent research cited by Kenneth Miller in Miller's book FINDING DARWIN's GOD which demonstrates recent speciation via microevolution.). Phillip Johnson claims that evolution isn't a natural law of science such as gravity. However, I wonder whether his ill-conceived logic might also account for other natural laws like gravity and the speed of light. Couldn't one say that these are due to an "Intelligent Design" devised by some omniscient CREATOR? Surely sciences such as physics, chemistry and geology ought to fall under the rubric of "Intelligent Design" theories, allowing for the possibility of supernatural events. Yet would these be considered science still, not metaphysics? Surely Johnbson's call for "theistic science" only proves his lack of understanding - or rather his unwillingness to understand - how and why science must remain a rational enterprise devoid of supernatural explanations.
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Summary: Another worthy discussion of Darwinism's problems.
Review: The Wedge of Truth--which, unlike some reviewers, I *have* read, is a fine sequel to Phillip Johnson's earlier, seminal book Darwin on Trial. The Wedge of Truth, if anything, concentrates more on the folly of science's being bonded to philosophical naturalism than on the shortcomings of evolutionary theory itself (as Darwin on Trial did), and in particular, the attitudes and arguments of Darwinian thinkers. I found it slightly more interesting, therefore, than Darwin on Trial, as evolutionary theory itself and the holes therein seem dreary and tedious in comparison with the discussion of Darwinism's philosophical assumptions and implications. If there was a particular figure Darwin on Trial concentrated on refuting the ideas of, it was Stephen Jay Gould; it seems to me that here, the scientist whose ideas Johnson spends the most time criticizing is Richard Dawkins. I was particularly amused by Johnson's commentary on Dawkins' analogy comparing macroevolution to a monkey at a computer that, over time, successfully types out a coherent message by hitting random letters (it may sound reasonable here, but it won't when one reads the details in the book). The Wedge of Truth is certainly worth your time.
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Summary: Context is essential to proper interpretation.
Review: The Wedge will collapse naturalism and thereby eradicate the most debasing and stulifying possible context that humans have created for some time now. Much energy has been spent engaging in rationalizations to keep this interpretatio of reality alive, but it will fizzle out because of its conceptual and evidential inadequacies. Truly it is sad that some humans, because of arrogance and selfishness, have devised a scheme that has reduced so many to little more than lusty, greedy herds of disoriented, distracted, disillusioned beasts, who are easily manipulated via flickering images on a screen, rapid beats from a radio. People don't live; they just exist, robbed of dignity, and have become little Caesars whose power is contained in a remote control - changing the world by a push of a button. Aid the Wedge!!! May it help us understand us.
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