Phillip Johnson on “Judgment Day”
On Monday, Phillip Johnson appeared on the ID the Future podcast, and talked about being interviewed for
Judgment Day, the Nova episode about Intelligent Design and the Dover trial.
He said that while the producer and crew were pleasant enough, but expressed concern that the interview would be mangled in editing, possibly to make it sound as if he were saying something he didn’t mean.
So I looked him up and asked him. He replied:
I didn’t spot any misquotation, but my interview was edited almost down to nothing (not by the team that interviewed me). I guess that is good. If I had said some silly things that the senior staff at WGBH could have used to discredit ID, those moments would have been shown on the program. If I could have picked the parts of the interview to be broadcast, I could have added a little more balance to a one-sided program.
(posted with permission.)
So no obvious quote-mining or distortion. I’ll be curious to see how this compares to PZ Myers’s interview for Crossroads Win Ben Stein’s Scorn Expelled.
Wnderful
it is about time that we get to hear both sides and offer fairness to Christians.
Whether you are a believer or an unbeliever, this is great!
Wait a sec. I thought Intelligent Design was supposed to be all about science, and had nothing to do with religion. What does this have to do with “fairness to Christians”?
In the theory of creation based on intelligent design… …
There has to be a designer!
Okay, so show me the science that shows that the designer is the Christians’ God, and not Zeus or Vishnu or Rael or some other entity.
There also has to be intelligence.
This reminds me of the Flying Spaghetti Monster phenomenon. The same people who claimed that ID was all about science and had nothing to do with religion would turn around and immediately cry, “Stop insulting my religion!” when somebody pulled out the FSM. They seem to want to have it both ways. They want legitimacy in the marketplace of ideas like real science, but they still want to be wrapped in the unwarranted insulation from criticism that being a religion brings.
Troublesome Frog:
Surely you’re not implying that the Disco Institute is being deliberately coy about who they think the unnamed designer is? Why, that would…
Actually, that would explain why the rank and file have so much trouble holding to the official party line that the Intelligent Designer might be the Christian God, but might be a bunch of space aliens (see Bill Buckingham et al.).