Phillip E. Johnson

Phillip E. Johnson is considered the father of the intelligent design movement. He first coined the term “intelligent design” as it is understood today in his 1991 book, Darwin on Trial. He uses legal principles to assess the value of evolutionary theory and concludes it to be based on philosophical presuppositions and atheistic ideas. Johnson is also a vocal critic of methodological naturalism, or the scientific principle that focuses on natural causes for unexplained phenomena. He supports a philosophy called theistic realism, which relies on the existence of a creator as a driving force for scientific inquiry. In 1996, Johnson co-founded the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, an intelligent design think tank. He currently serves as the center’s program advisor. Johnson was the author of an early draft of the Santorum Amendment, a senate bill that promotes the teaching of intelligent design theory in public schools.