note that the book isn’t ‘defeating darwin’ but ‘defeating darwinism.’ johnson’s case is against philosophical naturalism, not against evolution per se. in fact, he makes several comments in the book that seem to suggest that evolution is something he’s friendly to—just not the standard ‘unguided, mindless’ version.

written for laypeople; so the good news is that it’s very readable. the bad news is that there are several claims he makes that, while they may be correct, are definitely controversial and debatable. he just doesn’t take the time or go into the detail necessary to defend some of those claims, which is unfortunate but hopefully intentional.

the bottom line is that philosophical naturalism is an assumption, not an incontrovertible fact. and if you buy philosophical naturalism, the case for a creator-regardless of what mechanism is used to bring about creation-is closed from the outset.

johnson is arguing that a) this assumption needs to be admitted and unmasked and b) it’s probably not such a good assumption.