E. Marshall Johnson
Born in 1930, after receiving his PhD from UC Berkeley in 1959, Dr. E. (Elmer) Marshall Johnson spent the majority of his academic career at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Named a Professor Emeritus of the Anatomy and Developmental Biology department at the university in 2003, Johnson had risen to the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy in 1972. In addition, he also acted as director of the Daniel Baugh Institute for Functional Genomics and Computational Biology and President of the Teratology Society. In 1985, he was appointed an honorary medical alumnus of the university.
Johnson is most well known among those studying science and Islam for his comments regarding embryology in the Qurʾān, which he made in 1982 at the 7th Annual Saudi Medical Meeting in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. While presenting a research paper, Johnson allegedly commented that he could not find any evidence to refute what was said in the Qurʾān about embryology and the time the Qurʾān was written, it would have been impossible to possess that knowledge, which lead him to state that divine intervention was involved in the Qurʾān. It is important to note, however, that this small section of his paper and his comments might have been taken out of context, and are now often used as ‘cherry-picked’ evidence by Muslim apologists.
E. Marshall Johnson does not appear to have any active social media pages.
Selected Bibliography:
“Daniel Baugh Institute for Functional Genomics/Computational Biology.” Daniel Baugh Institute. Thomas Jefferson University, n.d. Accessed 21 May 2015.
“E. Marshall Johnson.” American Men & Women of Science: A Biographical Directory of Today’s Leaders in Physical, Biological, and Related Sciences. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Biography in Context. 26 May 2015.
“Part II: Basic Sciences — Chapter 3: Department of Anatomy (pages 105-130)” (1989). Thomas Jefferson University – tradition and heritage, edited by Frederick B. Wagner, Jr., MD, 1989. Paper 4, pp. 128-130. Accessed 26 May 2015.
“Part II: Honorary Medical College Alumni (pages 789-792)”. Thomas Jefferson University – A chronological history and alumni directory, 1824 – 1990, edited by Frederick B. Wagner, Jr., MD, and J. Woodrow Savacool, MD, 1992. Paper 34, p. 792. Accessed 21 May 2015.
“Prof E. Marshall Johnson.” Ideal Muslimah, n.d. Accessed 21 May 2015.
“Science Islam – Scientists Comment on the Quran.” Science Islam – Scientists Comment on the Quran. Islam Tomorrow, n.d. Accessed 21 May 2015.
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