Darwinism Defined

Robert Beverly MacKenzie (1798-1868), one of Darwin's fiercest critics, had this to say about his theory:

In the theory with which we have to deal, Absolute Ignorance is the artificer; so that we may enunciate as the fundamental principle of the whole system, that, in order to make a perfect and beautiful machine, it is not requisite to know how to make it. This proposition will be found, on careful examination, to express, in condensed form, the essential purport of the Theory, and to express in a few words all Mr. Darwin's meaning; who, by a strange inversion of reasoning, seems to think Absolute Ignorance fully qualified to take the place of Absolute Wisdom in all the achievements of creative skill.

Although he meant this to be a telling criticism, it is actually a pretty good description of what natural selection achieves.