I'm not arguing that evolution doesn't happen. I am arguing how it happens. He built his theory on a flawed understanding of inheritance. That understanding is what led to his conclusions. If he had understood how inheritance was passed down, I suspect he would have come to a different conclusion on how evolution occurs. One that would have been able to match the fossil record.
This is what Darwin wrote, "“It seems pretty clear that organic beings must be exposed during several generations to the new conditions of life to cause any appreciable amount of variation; and that when the organisation has once begun to vary, it generally continues to vary for many generations” (Darwin
1861, p. 7)."
I believe we come from common ancestors. Plural. I don't believe that evolution occurs in onesies and twosies. It occurs across the herd simultaneously. Such that there is a fairly rapid transition - i.e. one or two generations - from one species to another species with the original species dying out because that is what the fossil record shows with respect to speciation.
I do not believe that organic beings must be exposed during several generations to the new conditions of life to cause any appreciable amount of variation; and that when the organisation has once begun to vary, it generally continues to vary for many generations. That's not supported by the fossil record.