How is natural selection used by evolutionists to support evolution???

Question

ok so I need help with this question for some homework.....

I've looked allover and can't seem to find it!!!

I'm counting on you :)

Answer 1

The first link is very helpful.  Click on the "natural selection" tab under the first section for specific details about how natural selection operates.

Answer 2

Natural selection is basically the theory of "survival of the fittest". Species with favorable genes and traits have an advantage of less favorables genes and therefore become more common. For instance, let's use the giraffe as an example. Let's say that giraffes used to have short necks. One day, a long necked giraffe comes along. The long neck is a favorable trait. Because of its long neck, this giraffe can reach the better leaves on the tree to eat. Then competition factors in and because the long necked giraffe is well off, it reproduces more and has an advantage over all the short necked giraffes. Eventually, the short necked giraffes all die out and all we have left are the giraffes of today. Therefore, short necked giraffes evolved into long necked giraffes through natural selection.

Creationists just believe that God one day placed long necked giraffes on the Earth. End of story.

Hope that sort of helped.

Answer 3

Natural selection is the process by which evolution works.

Scientists challenge the natural selection theory through the scientific method.

Do I get a B+?

Answer 4

Natural selection provides the *mechanism* that explains how evolution can occur in nature.

In other words, without natural selection, evolution is a process without an explanation.

It explains why evolution is NOT just a random process.  

It explains why evolution can cause *HUGE* changes in HUGE time ... bad traits are relentlesslly eliminated by the simple act of survival, while good traits are not only kept, but they are mass-produced (they propagate) into the population.  This process is slow but it is absolutely *RELENTLESS* ... in the way that waves washing up on a cliff can eventually reduce it to a sandy beach.

It also beautifully explains away the paradox of evolution ... individuals do not change, but somehow the population (species) changes over time.  I.e. individuals do not change genetically ... they all die with the same genes they are born with.   So how can the species change over time?  Answer:  Natural selection!

So all of these things are why natural selection gives evolution a firm foundation ... it's not just a process we can see for a fact is occurring and has occurred for a very long time ... this process has a *cause*, an explanation.