Thread split - please post on-topic in future.
I am reading Roger Lewin's principles of human evolution, this is the first book on evolutionary biology I've read, and I've grasped a lot of the concepts learned so far. Natural selection, from the Darwins point of view, actively preserves beneficial traits, it does not weed out bad ones. The neutral theory of molecular evolution says that evolutionary change is due to genetic drift, when a population favors specific genes and alleles not due to an outside force like predators or environmental change (natural selection) but due to mutations or lack/excess reproduction. How do the two go together? Is the neutral theory of molecular evolution purely on the molecular level? I am confused on this, and who is right? The Darwinists, or the proponents of the NTOME? My knowledge of biology solely comes from one watered down honors course I took in my freshman year of high school (I'm now a senior and taking ap bio this year).
Let me add this question : Why does an animal does not eat his offspring ? meat is meat , why does a mother animal crocodile or human protect their offspring , what does an animal know of survive of his own specie ?