Answer to Question #295999 in Evolution for Rookie

Question

Natural selection allows certain species to survive. The organisms that survive are those best adapted to their environment. Does natural selection make organisms more complex and perfect?

Answer 1

To assume that natural selection is goal-oriented of making organisms more complex and perfect would be absolutely wrong. There is no goal or purpose in evolution. Every organism today has been evolving for as long as we have, and many of them are still very simple indeed, yet highly successful. If they were to become perfect for their environment then evolution would stop and that would be negative for survival should the environment change.

Compare it with artificial selection (breeding) which is goal-oriented to produce and perpetuate desirable traits. Natural selection is not goal-oriented because it only favors increased complexity only when being more complex is beneficial to survival.

The answer is therefore a big NO!