Parker has his doctorate in education; Johnson is a lawyer, not a scientist. 'Nuff said!
Not that it's important (because these were just two names off the top of my head) but well, you're wrong about Parker - unless you believe that the bio on the back of one of his books is fraudulent. Let me quote -- 'Dr. Gary Parker earned his doctorate in biology, with a cognate in geology (paleontology). He has earned several academic awards, including election to the national university scholastic honorary society Phi Beta Kappa, and a Science Faculty Fellowship from the National Science Foundation.'
As far as Johnson goes, you're right - he's a lawyer. So what? The only people that should be listened to on this subject are the ones who have a zillion letters behind their names? Nothing self-taught has any standing? That sounds pretty doggone arrogant and let me tell you, I've met a few folks with grade 8 education who in their specific field of knowledge, knew vastly more than the zillion letter types - particularly when there was a 'hands-on' component. Johnson seems to have at least won the respect of physicist and outspoken atheist Steven Weinberg who, in his book Dreams of a Final Theory, calls him 'the most respectable academic critic of evolution.....'. But no, he should be dismissed out of hand because he is a lawyer?
All the education in the world matter nothing if the foundation upon which it is based is flawed. I'm oft reminded of the historical understanding of what causes stomach ulcers. Up until 25 years ago, any self-respecting GP or even a gastroenterologist would have told you that the cause was stress, diet, smoking, drinking etc etc. Lots of really really smart people believed that - I mean things have advanced since 1984 but it's not like we were in the dark ages of medicine a couple of decades ago. Two Australian scientists found that the real cause was that it was a bacterial infection - the spiral shaped helicobacter pylori. Whoops - up until that point, it was just another case of lots and lots of intelligentsia building up a wealth of science all based on a wrong understanding at the foundational level. Sound familiar?