Historian Predicts Downfall of Darwinian Fundamentalism
In the upcoming June 20 issue of Forbes magazine, British historian Paul Johnson attacks the fundamentalism of Darwinists, and predicts its demise:
Of all the fundamentalist groups at large in the world today, the Darwinians seem to me the most objectionable. They are just as strident and closed to argument as Christian or Muslim fundamentalists, but unlike those two groups the Darwinians enjoy intellectual respectability.
Darwinians and their allies dominate the scientific establishments of the West. They rule the campus. Their militant brand of atheism makes them natural allies of the philosophical atheists who control most college philosophy faculties. They dominate the leading scientific magazines and prevent their critics and opponents from getting a hearing, and they secure the best slots on TV. Yet the Darwinian brand of evolution is becoming increasingly vulnerable as the progress of science reveals its weaknesses. One day, perhaps soon, it will collapse in ruins. (Emphasis added in all quotes.)
The entire article has been reprinted by the Discovery Institute.
For all his worthy tirade against the Darwinists, Johnson seems to accept the big bang theory and cosmic time with uncritical gullibility. Then he adopts a front-loading design philosophy, misreading Newton as having taught an impersonal Force. Then, apparently after assuming the front-loaded design produced human beings, he inserts a divine intervention at the origin of language. These strange thoughts diminish an otherwise interesting prophecy about the fall of Darwinism.
Johnson also seems to know little about fundamentalism other than the yellow-journalism stereotype. He defines it as stridency and closed-mindedness. That is not what the term meant when Christian scholars like J. Gresham Machen used the word. They were identifying what Biblical doctrines, what “fundamentals,” could not be compromised without cutting into the flesh of Christianity. Would Johnson walk into many “fundamentalist” Christian churches today, he would see the opposite of stridency and closed-mindedness. He would not see the image of Muslims toting AK47s and burning flags, screaming death to America. He would not see the image of Darwinians censoring any opposition. He would likely see humble and joyful people, singing praises to God, welcoming the stranger and asking, “How can I pray for you?”