So, let's move on, shall we?
One of the objections that some Young Earth Creationists raise when discussing evolution is this: It's either evolution or creationism. If evolution is true, then we all just got here by random chance. This cannot be. There is just too much order, design, and complexity in this universe. Therefore, creationism.
But there's a cover up going on here, or some spin doctering, if you prefer. What the YECs aren't telling you is that evolutionary scientists do not believe that pure chance made all the complexity of life. Wait, what?! Yes. In fact, scientists say this because EVOLUTION DOES NOT CLAIM THAT. Evolution is not chance. To claim this is one of the greatest misconceptions of the theory espoused by YECs. Granted, evolution does contain some components of chance, but the process is so much more robust. In fact, it is the precise existence of non-chance components that make evolution work. What do I mean?
Take natural selection, for example. It is one of the main engines driving evolution. It makes order out of chaos, and works according to a fixed set of rules, or non-randomness. Honestly, evolution is not really that hard to understand; it's quite simple, really. When certain mutations happen, organism undergo random changes. Some beneficial, some not so much. The organisms that have the beneficial mutation gain the competitive advantage. These genes are then passed down to their offspring. These traits are passed down in the population until they become common traits. And those with the bad mutations? Well, they are at a disadvantage, which means they are less likely to reproduce, which means that they do not pass on these changes, which means that they may eventually become extinct. That's how natural selection operates. With that said, it should be noted that there are disagreements about the level at which natural selection operates, but the principles I have just mentioned are agreed on unanimously.
So, in all actuality, natural selection is the opposite of chance. For example, take what scientists refer to as "random walk". Random walk says that if there were no natural selection driving evolution, life would follow a meandering pattern in which sometimes changes would be beneficial, and other times it would not. The population of a species would meander back and forth across the fitness landscape, yet never get anywhere. This would be an example of random change, and such a process could never lead to the complexity and diversity of life that we see. However, life does go somewhere. It evolves into different forms of life, higher orders of life. Why? Not because of random chance, but because of natural selection. Natural selection preserves the good variations of life, and eliminates the bad ones. It leads the population into greater fitness. This means that the changes that natural selection favors are not random. Rather, they are determined by the environment.
Let me elaborate just for the sake of clarity. In evolution, we have predictable patterns. Why? Because it's not random. Take for example the creatures of the sea. Why do both fish and aquatic mammals have the same streamlined body type? The answer is simple: it's because this is the most efficient shape for them to move through their aquatic environment. If evolution were completely random, we would not see any type of patterns like this in nature.
Think of it like this: all natural process are guided by laws in our universe, and these laws do not change. Take gravity for example. If I'm sitting here at my desk, and fling my laptop straight up in the air like a mad man, it is not guided by pure chance, but by the law of gravity. It is not just going to fly off in some random direction, but is going to arc, and land at a predictable point. The same with evolution. If a population of randomly mutating organisms is placed in a certain environment, they are not just going to proceed in a random direction. Rather, they will proceed in a direction that will help them better fit their environment.
But what about the mutations that provide the so called "raw material" for natural selection, aren't they random? Yeah, but only in the sense that they aren't "predisposed" to increase overall fitness. What does this mean? It simply means this: Good mutations are "preferred" over bad mutations. An organism has no idea of what mutations will be beneficial, nor does it have any control over those mutations. This means that it is just the organisms that have the good fortune of experiencing beneficial mutations that enable their offspring to survive better than those who do not receive the beneficial mutation.
So, before we even get into the theological aspect of how God relates to evolution, it is very important that we understand what I have said above before we proceed. Evolution is not random in the way that YEC's make it out to be. It is guided by natural laws. With this made clear, we can now move on to seeing how God relates to natural selection and the evolutionary process as a whole. This is what we will start to explore in the next post.