Page "Phillip E. Johnson" Paragraph 28

Since Johnson is considered by those both inside and outside the movement to be the father and architect of the intelligent design movement and its strategies, Johnson's statements are often used to validate the criticisms leveled by those who allege that the Discovery Institute and its allied organizations are merely stripping the obvious religious content from their anti-evolution assertions as a means of avoiding the legal restrictions of the Establishment Clause, a view reinforced by the December 2005 ruling in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial which found that intelligent design is not science and is essentially religious in nature.

They argue that ID is an attempt to put a patina of secularity on top of what is a fundamentally religious belief and thus that the " Teach the Controversy " exhortation is disingenuous, particularly when contrasted to his statements in The Wall Street Journal and other secular media.

Critics point out that contrary to the Discovery Institute's and Johnson's claims, the theory of evolution is well-supported and accepted within the scientific community, with debates regarding how evolution occurred, not if it occurred.

Popular disagreement with evolutionary theory should not be considered as a reason for challenging it as a scientifically valid subject to be taught, they contend.