Phillip Johnson—lawyer, author, key critic of Darwinian evolution—has died at the age of 79.

He graduated from Harvard, then the University of Chicago Law School, and would go on to clerk for the chief justice of the United States, Earl Warren. He’d then go on to teach at Berkeley’s School of Law.

But the key moment in his life came as a result of an invitation his young daughter received to go to Vacation Bible School at a local church. That exposure led to Phillip Johnson’s own Christian conversion.

But he’ll be remembered by many for his book, published in 1991, “Darwin on Trial,” in which he challenged the dominant theory of evolution, recognizing that it could not possibly account for the world as we know it. This world, he pointed out, has nearly infinite complexity.

Phillip Johnson was brilliant. He was also a personal friend and a courageous defender of truth.

He was born in 1940. He died just a few days ago at his home in Berkley, California.

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