I believe modern biology is much closer to being right than Darwin was.
We cannot compare Darwin’s evolutionary ideas to modern biology. Modern biology includes many fields that where unknown during Darwin’s time, such as epigenetics, genomics, systems biology, molecular biology, etc. The comparison has to be "apple to apple". As Ernst Walter Mayr put it, functional biology belongs to the exact sciences vs. evolutionary biology, which belongs to the “Geisteswissenschaften". See #331.
We may compare Darwin’s evolutionary ideas to the modern ToE “the modern synthesis”. But “the modern synthesis” is not closer to being right; in fact, it’s the other way around. It’s more wrong, I’ll explain why.
First, All the fundamental assumptions of the modern synthesis have been disproved. Molecular genetics and genome sequencing have deconstructed the MS view. As Denis Noble put it, “Molecular biology can now be seen to have systematically deconstructed its own dogmas”. See # 753 & # 781.
Second, Darwin tried to provide an explanation for the observed phenomenon of “microadaptation”, he proposed that the cells shed minute particles (he called gemmules), then the particles get transmitted to the next generation and are responsible for the transmission of characteristics from parent to offspring. The process is not random in the sense that gemmule production, variations and corresponding traits are directly linked to the environmental change. Darwin held that environmental changes, acting either on the reproductive organs or the body, were necessary to generate variation. IOW,
the change of the gemmule is the response of the cells to the environmental variables not merely a random change. In that sense, his view was more consistent with the modern view of “directed mutation” vs. the disproved view of the modern synthesis of “random/accidental mutations”. See # 1245.
But modern biology still has a hangover from Darwin and fixate on effects (survival of the fittest) rather than the cause (behavior). Until they admit their methodology is suspect there may be little or no progress.
We know now that genetic change is far from being random or gradual. Change is caused by a cell directed behavior. see the article below.
Physiology is rocking the foundations of evolutionary biology - Noble - 2013 - Experimental Physiology - Wiley Online Library
another article dated 2013, James A. Shapiro, a biologist and expert in bacterial genetics said, “Research dating back to the 1930s has shown that
genetic change is the result of cell-mediated processes, not simply accidents or damage to the DNA. This cell-active view of genome change applies to all scales of DNA sequence variation, from point mutations to large-scale genome rearrangements and whole genome duplications (WGDs). This conceptual change to active cell inscriptions controlling RW genome functions has profound implications for all areas of the life sciences.”
How life changes itself: The Read–Write (RW) genome (uchicago.edu)
The ToE is simply a false interpretation of the observed microadaptation phenomenon.
The evidenced directed microadaptation was incorrectly understood as random microevolution, which in turn led to the speculation of the unevidenced macroevolution that allegedly happens on a scale that transcends the boundaries between species.
The real world observed adaptation process is never about better survival chance of advantageous random mutations. It’s always about directed mutation of the organism to better fit an environment.
Survival is not a function of natural selection, natural selection is not a creative process, it will never give the organism a change that the organism doesn’t already have.
Survival per all observations depends on the organism’s ability of adaptation to better fit a changing environment. I.e., directed mutation. It’s a totally different process that has nothing to do with randomness.
Consider the undisputed fact of “Antimicrobial Resistance”. Microorganisms such as bacteria always develop the change/ability to survive against the drugs (antibiotics) designed to kill them. The change is always very fast and predictable.