The father of the intelligent design movement, Phillip E. Johnson, thinks the new atheists are right! How? They’ve put serious discussion about God back on the public agenda.

Despite their conclusions, folks like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett are asking the right questions. They’re making belief in any religion an issue again, especially in the university context where, for decades, questions about faith and reason have been taken off the table for serious discussion. Open debate is exactly what we need on the topics of God, evolution, and creation.

Together Johnson and John Mark Reynolds help us see the unique opportunity these vociferous and even evangelistic atheists are creating in their attempt to convert us to their unbelief. The authors show that we need not fear or react against these challenges. Rather they point to better ways to engage the opinions of this new, aggressive form of anti-religious activity. With skill and insight they energetically take on the question of whether the evidence leads to a materialistic naturalism or points toward a creator God.

Be informed. Be encouraged. Join the discussion.

Is evolution fact or fancy? Is natural selection an unsupported hypothesis or a confirmed mechanism of evolutionary change?

Darwin’s theory of evolution is accepted by most educated Americans as simple fact, but what if this idea is wrong? What if “evolution” is just a word that covers up scientific ignorance of how the wonders of the living world may have been created?

Berkeley law professor Phillip Johnson looks at the case for evolution with a lawyer’s cold, dispassionate eye for logic and proof. What he finds is that scientists have put the cart before the horse: they have prematurely accepted Darwin’s theory and have since been scrambling to back it up, mostly unsuccessfully. As the difficulties piled up, scientists have clung to the theory out of fear of encouraging religious fundamentalism, but in the process, they have turned Darwinism into a religion of its own.

Johnson’srelentless pursuit to follow the evidence wherever it leads remains as relevant today as it has ever been.

For decades, Christians have felt voiceless in the critical debate over evolution. Until now. Finally, ordinary Christians have the opportunity and the resources to defeat the false claims of Darwinism. With all of the complicated scientific debate swirling around the topic of evolution, Christians need an easy way to understand the basic issues without oversimplifying. Phillip Johnson has the answer: the key to defeating the false claims of Darwinism is to open our minds to good thinking habits.

Here is first-rate advice on avoiding common mistakes in discussions about evolution, understanding the legacy of the Scopes trial, spotting deceptive arguments, and grasping the basic scientific issues without getting bogged down in unnecessary details.

In the bestselling and critically acclaimed Darwin on Trial and Reason in the Balance, Phillip Johnson took on the academic elites and exposed the misleading claims of evolutionary naturalism. Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds provides a new and powerful treatment of these issues for high-school students, parents, teachers, pastors, youth advisers, and ordinary listeners. Johnson aims not just to defeat a bad theory, but to defeat it in the right way–by opening minds to the truth.

Phillip E. Johnson pries the lid off public debate about questions of ultimate concern–questions often suppressed by our society’s intellectual elite. Moving far beyond matters of creation and evolution, Johnson outlines the questions we all ought to be asking about the meaning of human history, the limits of scientific inquiry, religion and education in a pluralistic society, truth, liberty and moral choices, and God and His Word, Jesus Christ.

Johnson deftly demonstrates how the reigning naturalistic philosophy not only squelches public debate but also constrains us to ask the wrong questions. Unless we start with the right questions, Johnson argues, our discussions will be framed by the assumptions of that very philosophy which must be challenged.

Johnson asserts that even the Christian church has much too often passively accepted this limiting frame of mind to the detriment of all. But Christian faith and conviction instead ought to lead in opening up the search for truth and meaning through the kind of public education that “teaches in controversy.” Then all of us will be prepared to engage in lively, informed and civil debate about the questions that really matter:

Why is it always wrong to mix science and religion?What is the ultimate premise, the beginning point, from which logic should proceed?How can a college education prepare students to understand the ultimate purpose or meaning for which life should be lived and to choose rightly from among the available possibilities?What is the appropriate understanding of religion in a pluralistic nation where substantial numbers of Christians, agnostics, Jews, and Muslims all need to live together in peace?How can democratic liberalism remain viable when severed from its Christian roots?What is the most important event in human history?

Provocative, personal, persuasive, and prophetic, Johnson is certain to help us break free from our intellectual and spiritual captivity.

Science is the supreme authority in our culture. Science speaks so authoritatively in our culture that many are tempted to use its clout to back claims that go beyond the available evidence. How can we identify when such ideological sleight of hand has taken place?

This wedge of truth does not “wedge out” a necessary foundation of rational thought. But it does “wedge in” the much-needed acknowledgment that reason encompasses more than mere scientific investigation. Phillip E. Johnson argues compellingly for an understanding of reason that brings scientific certainty back into relational balance with philosophical inquiry and religious faith.

Applying his wedge of truth, Johnson analyzes the latest debates between science and religion played out in our media, our universities, and society at large. He looks to thinkers such as Newbigin, Polanyi, and Pascal to lay a foundation for our seeing the universe in a totally different way. And from that base he then considers the educational programs and research agendas that should be undertaken–and have already begun in some earnest–during this new century.

In the end, Johnson prophetically concludes that the walls of naturalism will fall and that the Christian gospel must play a vital role in building a new foundation for thinking–not just about science and religion, but about everything that gives human life hope and meaning.