Why is Natural Selection Taught as Evolution? - 15 Questions for Evolutionists #4

Why is natural selection, a principle recognized by creationists, taught as 'evolution', as if it explains the origin of the diversity of life? By definition it is a selective process (selecting from already existing information), so is not a creative process. It might explain the survival of the fittest (why certain genes benefit creatures more in certain environments), but not the arrival of the fittest (where the genes and creatures came from in the first place). The death of individuals not adapted to an environment and the survival of those that are suited does not explain the origin of the traits that make an organism adapted to an environment. E.g., how do minor back-and-forth variations in finch beaks explain the origin of beaks or finches? How does natural selection explain goo-to-you evolution? See: Evolutionist Dr John Endler's refreshing clarity about 'natural selection' has been largely ignored.

Question 4 in CMI's '15 Questions for Evolutionists' flyer challenges evolutionists to explain how natural selection can be the creative process evolutionists require. Natural selection explains the survival of the fittest, adaptation and variation within a kind leading to the great diversity of living things. It fits well with the biblical notion that God created life with the necessary programming to live in a variety of environments. Richard Fangrad and Calvin Smith discuss the question and the attempts to answer it.

Related content
• List of the 15 questions with supporting information
• Natural Selection Q&A page
• Evolutionist Dr John Endler's refreshing clarity about 'natural selection'
• Natural selection produces the wrong kind of change.