Natural selection, a main plank of Darwinism, is a mechanism first proposed by Charles Darwin as the mechanism by which individuals of a species with certain characters that give them a competitive edge in the securing of food and survival from predators, etc, and enabling them to produce more offsprings with those characters. Individuals without those characters eventually lose out to these better adapted individuals in the niche in which the species live. In this way nature 'selects' those characters best suited for survival and success in a particular niche and, with time, the evolution of a new species.
Natural selection assumes, among other things, that evolution is gradual and plentiful of time is available for it to accomplish its task. Though not without its difficulties, natural selection is, rationally speaking, a plausible explanation, though it remains a matter of rigorous debate among evolutionists whether it is the only mechanism, or one among several others. While natural selection may be inferred from observations in the field, it cannot be evidentially proven simply because 1) the process is so slow it is beyond the life-time of humans to observe such things, and 2) the process of evolutionary change is also so complex, involving so many different factors, that it is impossible to pinpoint what constitutes the proper and valid evidence for it.
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