David Kyle Johnson, Ph.D.

Biography

David Kyle Johnson, Ph.D. earned his Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma. His specializations include metaphysics, logical and scientific reasoning, and philosophy of religion, and he has published articles in journals such as Sophia, Religious Studies, Think, Philo, SHERM (Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry), Religions, Philosophia Christi, and Science, Religion and Culture. His most popular courses include “PHIL184: Science, Pseudoscience, and Medical Reasoning,” “PHIL171: Pop Culture and Philosophy” and “PHIL473: Metaphysics.” The first teaches how to apply scientific reasoning to everyday life, the second explores questions raised by popular media (like Black Mirror), and the third tackles questions about everything from the mind and free will and to God and quantum mechanics.

He also produces lecture series for The Teaching Company’s The Great Courses (such as Sci-Phi: Science Fiction as Philosophy, The Big Questions of Philosophy, Exploring Metaphysics, and (the forthcoming) Big Questions of Metaphysics). Kyle is the editor-in-chief of the (three-volume) Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture as Philosophy and also regularly writes and edits volumes for William Irwin’s Philosophy and Pop Culture series (with Blackwell-Wiley). Most recently this includes Black Mirror and Philosophy: Dark Reflections and a second edition of Introducing Philosophy through Popular Culture (with William Irwin). He also maintains two blogs for Psychology Today: Plato on Pop (with William Irwin) and A Logical Take.

Education

• B.A., Religion and Philosophy, Southern Nazarene University
• M.S., Philosophy, University of Oklahoma
• Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Oklahoma

Publications and Presentations

• The Palgrave Handbook of Pop Culture as Philosophy, Editor-in-Chief (Palgrave, 2024)
   (In addition to editing all three volumes, I wrote chapters on Don't Look Up, The Boys, Midnight Mass, The Orville, Quintin Tarantino, South Park, God's not Dead, and Inception.)
• Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture: From Socrates to Star Wars and Beyond (2nd edition) (co-editor) (Wiley-Blackwell, 2021)
• Exploring the Orville: Essays on Seth MacFarlane’s Space Adventure (co-editor) (McFarland, 2021) (In addition to editing, I wrote three chapters: “How The Orville Does Philosophy," “‘If the Stars Should Appear’ and Climate Change Denial," and "Making Sense of Time Travel")
• Black Mirror and Philosophy: Dark Reflections (editor) (Wiley-Blackwell, 2019)
  (Also available on Audible)
• Sci-Phi: Science-Fiction as Philosophy. The Great Courses (The Teaching Company, 2018) (Also available on Audible.)
• “More on the Relevance of Personhood and Mindedness: The Euthanasia Debate” SHERM (Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry) Vol. 5(1): 30-42. (2023).
• “God’s Prime Directive: Non-interference and Why There Is No (Viable) Free Will Defense” Religions, Vol. 13 (9): 871. (2022)
• “On Angels, Demons, and Ghosts: Is Justified Belief in Spiritual Entities Possible?” Religions, Vol. 13 (7): 603. (2022)
• “Free Will, The Holocaust, and The Problem of Evil” SHERM (Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry) Vol. 4 (1): 81-96. (2022)
• “Does God Exist?” Think Vol. 21 (61): 5-22. (2022)
• “Inference to the Best Explanation and Rejecting the Resurrection” SHERM (Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry) Vol. 3 (1): 26-51. (2021)
• “Why Religious Experience Can’t Justify Religious Belief.” SHERM (Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry) Vol. 2 (2): 26-46. (2020) 
• “Identifying the Conflict between Religion and Science” SHERM (Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry) (Vol. 2 (1): 122-148. (2020) 
• “The Relevance (and Irrelevance) of Questions of Personhood (and Mindedness) to the Abortion Debate.” SHERM (Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry) Vol. 1 (2): 121-153. (2019)
• “Retiring The Argument from Reason: Another Reply to Reppert.” Philosophia Christi Vol. 20 (2): 541-563. (2019)
• “Why I am an Atheist,” in Mark A. Lamport’s Handbook of Philosophy of Religion (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)
• “Contact and the Incompatibility of Science and Religion” in William Anderson’s Film, Philosophy and Religion (Vernon Press, Fall 2021).
• “Refuting Skeptical Theism,” in John Loftus’ God and Horrendous Suffering (GCRR Publishing, 2021).
• “How Fallacies Fuel Conspiracies” in Richard Greene and Rachel Robinson-Greene’s Conspiracy Theories: Philosophers Connect the Dots (Chicago: Open Court, 2020).
• “Inference to the Best Explanation and Avoiding Diagnostic Error” in Fritz Allhoff and Sandra Borden (eds.), Ethics and Error in Medicine (New York: Routledge, 2020).
• Philosophy and Pop Culture Articles for Irwin's Philosophy and Popular Culture Series include:
  “Was Marty Just Dreaming?” (Back to the Future, 2025), “The Last Jedi’s Despair" (Star Wars, 2022), “The Time Travel in Avengers: Endgame” (Introducing Philosophy, 2021), "Why It Wouldn’t Be Rational to Believe You’re in The Good Place (Good Place, 2020), and more

Awards and Designations

• A winner of the 2011 American Philosophical Association Op-Ed Contest (for Plato on Pop blog entry “Watson in Philosophical Jeopardy”).
• Joseph S. Ellin Memorial Essay Prize at the 6th Annual Light Hearted Philosophers Society Conference (for “A Debate Between a theist and a Santa Clausist”) (2012)
• Nominated for the 2009 Excellence in Philosophy of Religion Prize for “God, Fatalism, and Temporal Ontology.”

Portfolio Website

• academia.edu