At least you pose some qualifiers in your discourse. And, at one level, selective breeding cannot be argued against. Look at how we managed, over thousands of generations on several continents, to create breeds (most of our present domesticated sheep) of sheep who cannot shed their wool, so that their wool might grow very long. These sheep will eventually die if left unshorn long enough. And the merino sheep was bred to have lots of skin (think of a bloodhound's face with his wrinkles) so that the surface would support even more follicles of valuable wool. At the same time, other breeds of sheep became valued for their twinning propensity and their heavy body shapes--mutton sheep. Twinning among sheep used to be rare--now it is very common. The shepherd has to really work with the ewe to get her to accept both lambs, though, but this is also ancient lore.
The breeds of sheep are fascinating, because they are very ancient. I'd think they'd have managed with fruit flies long before this, given the fervor of evolution-origin priesthood , since the fly's brief generation is the blessed toy of geneticist experimentors. It has been for almost two centuries. Given the 24-hour generation of fruit flies, that's lots of generations. A good bit of time, and a good bit of space, lots of right conditions.
But, as you said and has been often said, there is never time enough.
When I visit museums of natural history, and all the eons of dead species are presented before me, it's a lonely feeling. There's so few of us species left, compared to what was.
Yes. Exactly. "We few, we happy few."
To me, looking at things from an evolutionary point of view, human life is far more valuable if it's the result of evolution than if it isn't. If the gods can end our existence whenever they like, and then with a snap of their divine fingers start it up all over again, and if they can repeat such whimsical actions as often as they wish, then we're little more than cheap toys, to be discarded without a thought, then re-acquired again at no expense. What's so special about human life in a setup like that?
Evolution teaches that we find ourselves at what is presently the end of a long line -- a very long line -- of fortuitous mutations that have survived innumerable extinction events and natural calamities. This implies that our kind will never happen again. I think that makes us very special, very rare, very precious. That's the perspective I gain from understanding evolution.