Phillip E. Johnson - God of the Gaps?

Hi,

I just have a question, perhaps some who are more familiar with the personal belief(s) of Mr. Phillip E. Johnson could answer this.

I have read one book by Mr. Phillip ('Defeating Darwinism'), I have to say that it presented some good points/arguments. But I was not able to hear what exactly it is that he believes to be the method by which we came to be.
One does not have to have a complete explanation and mechanism of an event in order to weigh the evidence of another explanation and find it faulty.

Now, I just started reading his book "Darwin on Trial". And in it he presented some more information on what it is that he believes about our coming into being. In it he states that he believes in the evolutionary theory, but not a naturalistic evolution. He states that he believes that God could have created us in an instant, but that He used the process of evolution to do it, instead.
That is not what he said at all. Here's what he said:

"I believe that a God exists who could create out of nothing if He wanted to do so, but who might have chosen to work through a natural evolutionary process instead."



So far, I am on page 29 of the book, and he has already gone over a few examples and arguments of natural selection. In one example, he uses the famous 'black & light' moths, where during a period of time, one was more prevalent than the other, and this was due to the dangers that being a particular color posed. He also used an example of the sickle-celled Africans, where one particular mutation would seem to be an advantage in certain situations, while a disadvantage in another.

After that, he presents his case that these examples merely point out that 'under certain circumstances,' the particular traits would be advantageous to one group, as opposed to the other groups that do not carry these traits. However, this does not prove that natural selection is the cause for these traits, since these traits were already existent. In case I have misrepresented his statement, let me quote him:

"None of the 'proofs' provides any persuasive reason for believing that natural selection can produce new species, new organs, or other major changes, or even minor changes that are permanent. The sickle-cell anemia case , for example, merely shows that in special circumstances an apparently disadvantageous trait may not be eliminated from the population." (page 27)

Now, the thing that I wanted to ask was this. If Mr. Johnson believes that God used evolution, on the grand scale, then what is exactly that he is complaining about in this book, and these examples? Does not the fact that he believes in evolution mean that, he believes that all of these changes occured naturally? (Natural, implying, a rule or order that was followed; though unknown to us how it happens, which would account for our inability to duplicate it.)

Or does Mr. Johnson believe that God came down each time that a major change was to occur, and "magically" made it all happen? Isn't that what they call "God of the Gaps"? What exactly is this man's argument? It would see as if, one moment he is arguing for evolution, while at the other moment he is arguing for an unknown creation. He neither accepts creation-science, nor does he accept evolution. (And by evolution I do not mean darwinism, but the plain old evolution he claimed to believe.)

Can anyone tell me more about this guy? Could anyone answer a few of my questions? I know their website, but it is quite an intimidating place, so perhaps this place would be a bit more comfortable for me.

Blessings!