The scientific evidence for Natural Selection is overwhelming.

Considering many who oppose evolution tend not to fully understand the theory as a whole, I will explain the mechanism as well as I can and give repeatable, testable and observable evidence for what I state. Natural selection Definition noun A process in nature in which organisms possessing certain genotype characteristics that make them better adjusted to an environment tend to survive, reproduce, increase in number or frequency, and therefore, are able to transmit and perpetuate their essential genotype qualities to succeeding generations. I would add to the above, that the 'certain genotype characteristics' are the result of mutations on the genetic level which occur during reproduction. My analogy is usually the following. We have 4 rabbits, two couples and they both have 1 bunny rabbit each. I pick rabbits because they are cute, but my point can be anything organism. Now one rabbit has a genetic mutation which causes a 1cm ear growth on both sides. This almost unnoticeable adaptation, allows the rabbit to hear just slightly better than his counterpart who has no obvious or beneficial mutations which we can see. In the process of looking for food, the longer eared rabbit hears a fox approaching towards the area that both rabbits inhabit. It naturally darts away and avoids harm, while his unfortunate shorter eared rabbit is eaten instead. The longer eared rabbit progresses and spreads its genes as it survives and has a higher probability of survival. It spreads throughout the population till small eared rabbits are non existent. This is natural selection as simply as I can put it. It is all hypothetical of course and I would not expect you to accept this as evidence. My evidence for this process is the Richard Lenski experiment in which we observe- . Beneficial mutations . Adaption to the environment and progressive efficiency due to mutations. . A struggle and passing on of these mutations to others. . Struggle for survival among the organisms. . Natural selection being the driving force of adaptation and progression. . Accumulated evolutionary traits being preserved. The beneficial mutations as seen in the Dr. Richard Lenski experiments. Dr. Richard Lenski, is a Distinguished Professor from Michigan University, who has conducted a 25 year experiment on E. Coli. The LTEE experiments as I believe they are called. For me these experiments are a beautiful example of the power of natural selection and evolution in action. While men and women like Lenski spend their lives producing evidence for evolution as I shall show, creationists ignore their work and tend to attempt to refute their evidence in broad sweeping claims, which do not stand up to empirical criticism especially when most of these refutations are ad hoc remarks. The experiment of Dr. Lenski is an example of mutations which proved beneficial to the E. Coli. 2013 is the anniversary of the experiments marking 25 years of research. With the life span and amount of bacteria, as Lenski states ' There is a lot of opportunity for evolution'. Dr. Lenski conducted an experiment in which he got 12 flasks of E. Coli all identical and infected each one with a glucose-rich broth. As expected the E. Coli would feed off the broth and then skyrocket in populations and then level off. Each day Lenski and his highly trained team would take a small sample from each flask and then infect a brand new flask with a small portion of the previous E. Coli. Basically moving the 12 tribes from 12 old flasks to 12 new flasks, with care not to infect any of them by an outside source. He would then repeat the process and give them the glucose rich-broth. As you can see the generations of E. Coli would live and die, a lot faster than humans or other animals, making them perfect for observing whether beneficial mutations are kept and preserved over time. As natural selection would predict. As predicted over 20 years of experimenting, 7,000 flasks and 45,000 generations had passed. For human equivalent it would roughly be a million years to the time of Homo erectus. Obviously Dr. Lenski could check if any of the flasks had contaminated any other flask, by use of ARA- and ARA+, but that is not important right now. Now as Darwinian evolution would predict, if a single mutation arose which would exploit the broth and perhaps take more nutrients in, then natural selection would obviously select the individual mutation and spread it throughout the population. Word for word natural selection in process if observed. What did the scientists observe? Exactly that, in fact each tribe had harnessed a mutation and were able to better live off the broth but in separate ways. By Freezing 'fossil' forms of the earlier generations Lenski was literally able to preserve remnants of the older E. Coli. By unfreezing and mixing the E. Coli from past and present they could calculate and observe the effectiveness of the two lineages. As predicted the modern E. Coli had been able to take in far more broth than the older one. In looking at their 12 tribes they noticed something amazing, all tribes had been able to produce and preserve mutations which helped them in taking in the broth. Not to mention each tribe in a hyperbola expression on a mathematical graph increased in size and productivity. Now as any scientist could tell you, there are many different mutations to make the body of the E. Coli bigger. More impressively the odds of two separate flasks following the exact path of each other to increase in size is far more improbable. In ARA+1 and ARA-1 each in 20,000 generations had followed the exact same evolutionary path and 59 genes had changed their expression. Now if this was by change then it would be so improbable, but as natural selection is not chance but specific picking of mutations then this is just an improbable event not an event so improbable it could never happen. On the creationist view this cannot happen. This is gradual culmination natural selection. The most impressive event of all though, I have left for last. In ARA-3 in the 33,000 generation the population went absolutely berserk, and skyrocketed. The OD which is optical density went from a standard 0.04 to about 0.25. The ARA-3 was in broth of glucose, but not just glucose. also citrate. As found in lemons. This substance cannot be used by the E. Coli if there is oxygen in the water, which there was in each flask unless a mutation came along which could take in citrate and use it as food. That is exactly what happened. As I am only touching the surface of this experiment I can give you a little more information. As Lenski states the idea one mutation arose is improbable because why has it not occurred in all the other flasks and generations. So another hypothesis was also presented, what if 2 or 3 mutations culminated and then upon reaching the second or third the ability was made available for the E. Coli. This is irreducible complexity refuted if found true. If E. Coli managed to preserve 1 or 2 mutations which served no purpose as known, until the third or second came along then it would be an amazing example of the precision of natural selection. Blount one of Lenski's students underwent the experiment by unfreezing the 'fossil' generations and tested them to see if they were primed for evolving the ability to take in citrate. At generation 20,000 ARA-3 evolved the mutation known in the experiment as ' mutation A ' . This mutation primed the E. Coli for increasing its likelihood of acquiring the ability to take in citrate. As observed all the tribes had this mutation A but only ARA-3 had been able to acquire mutation B and with that it was able to take in citrate. The experiments show evolution by natural selection; adaptation to the same environment by separate routes independently: the way successive mutations build on their predecessors to produce evolutionary changes; the way some genes rely, for their effects, on the presence of other of other genes. I can cite more examples of natural selection and even provide evidence from almost every scientific field in biology. I am not going to discuss the titles given to the theory or the controversies, I simply provide a single piece of evidence for natural selection but give it in extreme detail. I can cite other sources but I think this is effective enough. Sources . http://isites.harvard.edu... . http://www.amazon.com...