Reynolds Generally Fairly Sensible, But When He's A Fool, He's A Fool

Link:

HEH: “In the mind of the anti-free-marketeer, the government occupies the same kind of intellectual territory as the divine designer in the mind of an anti-Darwinian.”

My response to the Samizdata post he references:

Odd, then that the most staunch of the Darwinists also tend to be big government leftists. Fantasy thinking pervades both stances, so perhaps this should be no surprise.

Mickelthwaite's analogy is deeply flawed, in that there is plenty of evidence for a designer, but no evidence for the efficacy of socialistic government. Other than the fact that atheism makes it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled Darwinist, there is little good evidence that random variation and natural selection have the magical powers ascribed to them.