OK, the simple stuff first.

Steve Shaw
"Evolution simply means change." For Christ's sake, Snail, no it does not.
Yes it does. I suggest you consult a quality dictionary rather than invoking Christ.

Evolution, the non-random survival of heritable entities which occasionally miscopy (with thanks to Richard Dawkins for that quote) has led to all the diversity, complexity and beauty of life on Earth.
That quote comes from this article Why Darwin matters where Dawkins is clearly talking about natural selection not evolution. Diversity and complexity are consequences of the mechanisms of evolution and natural selection, not it's purpose. It doesn't have a purpose. Beauty is a human judgement. Everything is beautiful to someone.

Natural selection has nothing to do with survival of races, species or individual organisms, or extinctions.
I didn't mention races (although Darwin did). I didn't say it was to do with the survival of species. I didn't mention extinctions. It most certainly is to do with the survival of individual organisms. That's what selection is about.

It is about differential survival within species.
... of individual organisms. Not sure where taking species out of the argument leaves the Galapagos finches (OK, on Galapagos) but it is a slightly more contentious point. Darwin's great work does conspicuously fail to do what it says on the tin. It does not explain the origin of species.

I would also contend that natural selection as a "driving force" is a concept you may wish to reconsider. It wasn't Darwin's term, was it? I hope your genetics course will clear one or two things up for you.
In the article mentioned above, Dawkins mentions Patrick Matthew who had come up with the basic idea of natural selection about thirty years berfore Darwin published.
He says -
Matthew seems to have seen selection as a purely negative, weeding-out force, not the driving force of all life.

I hope your genetics course will clear one or two things up for you.
Going nicely, thank you. I would be finding it a bit of a struggle were it not for the degree level study of genetics I've done already.

You say, Do to try to read what I've actually typed first. Could I ask the same of you? You mis-represent what I say even more than pete does.

Back later.