George Gilder of the Discovery Institute has an extended defense of “intelligent design” in the new print issue of National Review. John Derbyshire, writing on National Review Online, is wholly unconvinced. I often disagree with Derbyshire, and I found Gilder’s early writings on capitalism and economic growth quite compelling when I was in college, but Derbyshire clearly gets the best of Gilder here.
On a related note, I am quite puzzled that so many conservatives who accept the idea of spontaneous order in the marketplace are nonetheless enthralled by the idea of “intelligent design.” As F.A. Hayek and other important economic thinkers explained, the order and coordination of the marketplace arises spontaneously and does not require any central planner (or intelligent designer). Further, the economic order evolves over time without any such central planning, as successful innovations and organizations displace their predecessors. Why is it that those who see no need to ascribe the existence of complex evolutionary organizatioal systems to a central intelligence in one sphere find the concept so necessary in another.