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I think it's definitely true that we've affected natural selection, but I just can't agree with the idea that we've somehow transcended nature and evolution.
After all, the reason humans have been so successful as a species is our brain. It's better than having the sharpest claws or the longest beak, but it's still a naturally evolved tool. Now we're simply using that tool to the best of our ability in order to help our species survive.
Saying that by doing so we've stopped evolution or natural selection is like saying that turtles have stopped evolving, because even the sick or weak ones are still protected by a hard shell.
There's a tendency to think of things produced by our brains as separate from the natural order, but in reality it's just like beavers using their enormous teeth to build dams. Our tools affect our environment on a much larger scale, but all we're doing is utilizing the tools evolution has given us.
Of course, it may turn out in the end that we're an evolutionary dead end, and that we've used our tools to destroy our environment to such a degree that we select ourselves out, but even that will be a part of natural selection. Or it could turn out that we standardize our gene pool to such a degree (by removing some of the pressures of selection) that we'll be unable to adapt to changing conditions and just die out. It will suck for us, of course, and for many other species, but it's still a part of the evolutionary process. Even if we wanted to overcome natural selection, we'd be unable to.
Bingle
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