Of course natural selection is an integral part of evolution, which creationists always like to leave out because they then get to make a ridiculous claim about it, like the watch and the watchmaker fallacy. In fact I heard a similar fallacy just last week or the week before from my JW friend. I don’t remember what ridiculous thing he was suggesting might be formed, but I do remember a tornado was involved. Which just made me realize that they always want to make it happen instantaneously, too.
But I think there’s a rather new process in play which replaces natural selection in some cases, “unnatural selection”. Have you noticed that people seem to have all kinds of allergies we never heard of as kids? This may or may not be true, but you certainly hear about them more. It’s the subject of many an amateur conspiracy theory, spoken among ordinary people, but not widely spread as a conspiracy theory. The most common one I hear is because kids aren’t exposed to anything any more, so they don’t build up a tolerance to it. It does make sense, if you don’t know that you can actually develop an allergy to something over time by being exposed to it repeatedly.
I think this is a symptom of unnatural selection, our ability as humans to give evolution the big middle finger and survive and breed regardless what our genetics want. The things which once would have stopped a genetic line from continuing are, more and more, treatable. Having a severe allergic reaction doesn’t necessarily kill you along with the genes which cause it any more. If you’re not attractive, there’s surgery for that. If you’re infertile, there are drugs for that. If you’re bipolar, there are drugs for that. If you’re intellectually disabled and unable to live on your own, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t live a full life, even one with children. Lifespans are steadily increasing, but most people look on the far end of that. It’s the early end, the children who would normally have died, who are affecting the gene pool.
To be clear, I’m not a monster suggesting eugenics or anything like that. It’s just an interesting thought; A commentary on what it means to be human and the power over nature which comes with that, for good or for bad. If we wanted to I bet we could find a way to do something truly incredible, like melt the polar ice caps or something. In fact, I bet we could do it if we didn’t want to! That’s how much power we have over nature as humans.