Difference Does Evolution Make? What makes a great difference is not evolution as such but two other ideas that are often identified with it: natural selection and materialism. Natural selection basically means “the survival of the fittest.” According to Darwin, it is the mechanism by which species evolved. Now this could be one of two things. It could be the means God used, the force he implanted in nature from the beginning—in which case natural selection is a part of divine design. Or it could