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51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Best Brief Intros to the Christian Origins Debate, January 13, 2000
Denis Lamoureux, an evangelical Christian with three doctorates (theology, biology, and dentistry), is an unapologetic evolutionist. He considers Phillip Johnson (a distinguished member of the law faculty at the University of California, Berkeley) to be "the most important antievolutionist in the world today." Johnson, like Lamoureux, is a devoted Christain. In the first part of this book the two engage in debate. Lamoureux opens. Johnson replies. Lamoureux responds. Johnson gets the last word. The second part of the book includes nine responses to the debate from theologians, scientists, and philosophers (all of whom have Ph.D.s). These include such names as Michael Behe, Michael Denton, Stephen Meyer, and Howard Van Till. Some are disposed toward Johnson and his position which is called "intelligent design theory." Others favor Lamoureux and his "evolutionary creationist perspective." All have their own ideas they wish to toss into the fray. At 174 pages, the book is brief enough to serve as a good introduction to this lively debate between Christians who know that God created, but disagee about how it was done. I am a college professor and recently assigned this book for an undergraduate philosophy of science seminar that I taught on creation and evolution. The students in the course found it very useful, as will all serious students of the Christian origins debates.
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52 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Johnson on Trial, August 16, 2000
I cut my theological teeth on the Origins debate. As an Evangelical and a student of biological science, I soon supped upon a steady diet of Phillip Johnson and Michael Behe. I shared Johnson's outrage at an academic world with atheistic assumptions. I revelled in his out-sciencing the scientists; he was winning back atheistic turf! I fretted over the dismissal of his arguments by Stephen Jay Gould and the rest of the scientific community. I wheeled out Johnson to defeat the lecture notes of my biology professors and former high school teachers. I looked forward to the fall of Darwin. But I began to read criticism of Johnson. I found counter-arguments that were often as convincing and as rhetorically powerful as Johnson himself. I became increasingly aware of questions that were never addressed by the good guys: If life evolved, is Christianity false? Does the Bible demand what Lamoreux calls "cosmological concordance"? Does Johnson have a plausible Christian alternative origin model makes sense of the fossils? Is it even desirable to have a supernatural scientific methodology? The answer to all these questions is no. For those would-be Darwin Defeaters, examine Lamoureux. Question your own objectivity. Don't be afraid that any questioning is compromise, or that your whole Christian world will crumble. Contrary to popular belief, history is full of orthodox Christians who supported evolutionary creationism. Lamoreux's arguments resonate deeply with my own conclusions and intellectual development. I didn't compromise. I refused to compromise in the pursuit of truth, and it led me to the ministry. This is a wonderful book because it finally calls Johnson to some intellectual accountability. Johnson is forceful and rhetorically powerful in his own books. But force and power is not truth. Johnson's failure here is a testimony to that.
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32 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fillip for Phillip, August 11, 2000
When I first reviewed "Darwinism Defeated?" in manuscript the first thought that hit me was, "Why the blazes is Johnson allowing this to be published?" In my opinion, Professor Phillip Johnson takes a beating of the worst kind from fellow Christian, Professor Denis Lamoureux, and then permits Regent College to publish the debate. So you can imagine how completely stunned I was when I later found reviewers actually hoisting Johnson in victory as the undisputed champ of this exchange. Nothing could be further from the truth.In response to Lamoureux's thirty-eight page critique of Johnson's book "An Easy-To-Understand Guide for Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds," Johnson writes: "I doubt if the common ancestry thesis is true. However, I do not consider this issue to be of central importance and do not attempt to argue the question for now, because certain crucial work in progress that bears on common ancestry has yet to be published." Lamoureux candidly replies: "This is indeed a remarkable statement! Johnson has gained international attention for rejecting biological evolution (or common ancestry), and now he claims that this theory is not "of central importance." In the book that thrust him to the forefront of the modern antievolution movement, Darwin on Trial (1991), seven of the twelve chapters attempt to argue directly against the evidence for common ancestry. Note, too, that in not wanting to deal with the scientific evidence for evolution, Johnson's escape-and-evasion tactic includes an appeal to work "yet to be published." What then is the point in having an evolutionary creationist like me in an exchange of ideas with Johnson if the topic of common ancestry is not central to the discussion?" Johnson continues his attempt to escape Lamoureux's onslaught by claiming that he does not think it "worthwhile to discuss detailed evidentiary questions with Denis Lamoureux." Can we really blame Lamoureux for being irritated at this? Expecting Christian charity and a zeal for the truth, Lamoureux instead finds himself being denied the opportunity to cross-examine Johnson, the very thing he was asked to do by Johnson in the first place. In his frustration, Lamoureux responds by directing four pointed questions at Johnson concerning his academic authority, scientific beliefs, and poor treatment of fellow Christians. How does Johnson finally respond to these? He doesn't. Instead he excuses himself from the debate with this statement: "I disavow Denis Lamoureux's characterizations of what I have written." As if this was not enough of an outrage, in place of a response to Lamoureux's questions Johnson instead offers a radio transcript of a conversation between himself and Dr. James Dobson! As a young mind attempting to discover the proper relationship between my faith and creation, I have found that Lamoureux has demonstrated beyond doubt that Johnson has little to offer us. In fact, the only thing this soi-disant 'freer of minds' has given us in this exchange is just another fillip, just one more trivial addition to the discussion at large and a deplorable one at that. It is because of this very fact that "Darwinism Defeated?" is and will continue to be a best-seller.
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