Greatest Show from Darwin 3-Artificial selection

The Greatest Show from Darwin to Dawkins
3. Artificial selection

Just like Darwin a hundred and fifty years ago, Dawkins decided to start from artificial selection in support of natural selection. And it cannot but inspire.
Multiple examples of breeding cabbage, dogs, cows, horses, roses, sunflowers and of course Darwin's beloved pigeons. To this we add the professor's inspiring arguments about the possibility of effective selection of people and about the wonderful results that could be obtained as a result.

Let's not be too picky about the popularizer, because all his efforts are just to bring us closer to understanding the great mystery of nature.
"Anyone can understand the principle of evolution by artificial selection," says Dockins. "Natural selection is the same with one minor changed detail. Strictly speaking, the breeder/sculptor does not carve the body of a dog or cabbage, but the gene pool of a breed or species. The idea of the gene pool is the main one in the totality of knowledge and theory, which exists under the name of "Neo-Darwinian Synthesis. Darwin himself knew nothing about it."

That's progress! Now we know what the founder of the doctrine did not know.
So what is this "slightly modified detail" that distinguishes artificial selection from natural selection? In order not to bore the reader with endless examples of selection, I go straight to the conclusions.

So, artificial selection:
1. Selection is carried out using the goal. Although in some cases, the presence of reason in breeders is not so obvious.
2. Breeders install artificial barriers. "Breeders of Pekingese or Dalmatians carefully stop the flow of genes from one gene pool to another. Pedigree books are kept going back many generations, and breed mixing is the worst thing that can happen in a breeder's book of a breed. It's as if each breed of dog was confined to its own little Ascension Island and kept separate from any other breed. But the barrier to interbreeding is not the open sea, but human rules. Geographically, all breeds overlap, but they might as well be on different islands, since their owners control the mating possibilities."
3. Selection is carried out taking into account the goal set by the breeder. This can be a purposeful obtaining of a certain exterior, an increase in milk content, fat content of milk, meat quality, etc.

Natural selection:
1. It is carried out without the use of reason. We do not forget one of the fundamental postulates of Darwin's theory about the randomness of changes.
2. In natural conditions, with rare exceptions, there are no barriers to crossing between closely related individuals. "Real gene pools, even on small islands like Ascension, are imperfect approximations, only partially shuffled. The smaller and less rugged the island, the closer the approximation to the abstract ideal of a perfectly mixed gene pool. Just to complete the idea of gene pools — each individual animal that we see in the population is a sample from the gene pool of its time (or rather, the time of its parents)."
3. Natural selection is carried out according to one single criterion: survival abilities.

Let's be honest, instead of a "slightly modified detail", with all the desire, it is difficult to find at least one minor unifying detail here.
There is nothing in common on the first two points. Except that selection on the basis of survival can accommodate all those criteria by which a person carries out his selective selection. And this thought may seem natural when looking at the diverse world of flora and fauna. Well, let's say that increasing the milk content and fat content of milk will somehow help survival, but how can a certain exterior or quality of meat help survival?
Moreover, as a result, most of the individuals resulting from breeding have reduced viability and are eliminated in the process of natural selection.
It may seem that proving the theory of natural selection through artificial selection is like trying to deduce the concept of gravity through the invention of a ballistic missile by man.

As you know, there is a connection between these concepts, but it is the opposite. The rocket flies, overcoming the force of gravity, just as artificial selection works contrary to natural processes. A rocket that has used up all the fuel falls to the ground, just like everything from breeding cereals to thoroughbred horses and dogs, finding itself in the wild, very quickly comes to its original form.

However, it seems to me that neither Dawkins, nor even Darwin himself, tried to present selection as a fundamental proof. Everything is much more prosaic. Reasoning about artificial selection serves only to warm up the reader and prepare him for the great discoveries that will follow.
Here's how it's explained: "If such a big evolutionary change can be achieved in just a few centuries or even decades, just think what could be achieved in ten or a hundred million years."

Artificial selection is not a stumbling block between the theory of natural selection and creationism, although, considering the examples of selection, it would be much easier to prove the latter by simply presenting a higher being in the place of the breeder.

However, as we have already understood, numerous examples of breeding only show us that wildlife is not static and easily amenable to the influence of external factors, even those who do not have completely natural approaches, but have a very developed imagination and a lot of perseverance.
Let's leave the fruits of the intricate hands of breeders alone and finally look into the face of wild nature.

* - I apologize for my English. I would be grateful for the corrections.

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