Survival is the Selector

Evolution is 'descent with modification'. FACT: Animals change. Deal with it. The evidence for descent with modification ie. evolution is undeniable. The most commonly referrenced source is the fossil record. There are beautiful fossils showing the ancestry of modern and ancient animals, detailing intricately the changes that species have undergone over millions of years. The process that has allowed this to happen, natural selection, however is even less understood. There is a wildly propagated misunderstanding that natural selection means that animals consciously know how to adapt and what to change, or that nature is somehow a force that picks and chooses this trait or that gene to be passed on. No, natural selection does not involve mother nature arbitrarily favouring one species over another. Nor do animals themselves orchestrate knowingly their own adaptation and modification. Natural selection means survival and reproduction. Survival is the selector. If a gene, mutation, trait etc increases an animal's chances of outrunning its predators, or living in a harsh habitat, then it will survive and mate and subsequently that beneficial change will be passed on to the next generation. That mutation is then said to have been selected. Not by the animal or by Gaia, but by its impact on the likelyhood of survival. Again, survival is the selector.