Has natural selection really been tested and verified?

1. Organisms have heritable traits (genes)
2. These traits exhibit variation (random mutation)
3. Some variations are more successful than others (natural selection)
4. Successful variations spread throughout the population (evolution)

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." - Charles Darwin.

I didn't say that "some random mutations are more successful than others" [emphasis mine], I used the word 'variations'. It seems you are trying to make 'random mutation' part of the definition of natural selection, but I wouldn't go as far as that. Whatever its nature, variation occurs, and that's all that matters.

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." - Charles Darwin.

What's that supposed to mean? Not necessarily. God could be playing poker to decide which cosmic ray hits which nucleotide, for all I care. The point is that it results in variation.

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." - Charles Darwin.

I have to go now. I'll answer you in a few hours' time

Your having a baby? Yes, that's natural selection taking place. It means your particular traits have kept you alive long enough in the struggle for existence (food, shelter, a mate) to produce a child and pass on the genes responsible for those traits.That your baby survives? Is that natural selection taking place? Well, that depends on how long your baby survives. Once you are a grandmother the answer is 'yes'. Until then it's 'no'.

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." - Charles Darwin.

Even though I nominated Peg's post as Post Of The Month, I couldn't let this pass without notice. I'd like to comment, all in good spirit of course, first that saying that she'll never subscribe to evolution is, in my opinion, a dogmatic and foolish thing to say, and second that saying that they - evolutionists - will never subscribe to evolution is to underestimate the evolutionist's appreciation of evidence. I hope you can work out yourself what I mean by that last part.

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." - Charles Darwin.