If evolution was hit and miss it would not show an almost linear progression of refinement and a progression of complexity. A form of evolution without any governing impetuous whatsoever would do nothing because change would be unnecessary. In fact why evolve at all even when subjected to conditional change because extinction becomes the more valid option.
The higher consciousness and Neanderthals, etc. Evolution is the process of moving to a more optimal state. They didn't just happen to be superfluous waste along the way, they were part of a bridging of forms leading to us. The process of creating humans took place within the natural processes of nature even though it was predestined.
Not an experiment, stepping stones spanning great rafts of time, adding refinements and intellectual capacity until the fully sentient homo sapiens sapiens emerged.
I wish you would drop the (sky-daddy) thing. Firstly in relation to this Consciousness, it is neither up nor down. Daddy, only in its creative capacity because it has no physical form. Our loved ones give identity, belonging, shared love and in most cases bring out the better aspects of our nature. Meaning comes from an understanding of the totality of the experience that life offers.
It is not rational to believe that an inert, uninvested, energyless, forceless nature could produce a single hydrogen atom, let alone a universe teeming with life. When you say nature without a consciousness driving it you are actually talking about a nothing that somehow stumbles upon building a universe and producing life.
Now my opinion is just that and I may claim this and that when in truth I know bugger-all, but what I do know is that nature in and of itself doesn't exist. If there is no Higher Consciousness then please don't tell me nothingness made something, only something can make something. And forces didn't marshall themselves together fortuitously and then create life and this life went all the way and became a sentient being. That's even worse than a literal interpretation of the Bible. That's another kind of fundamentalism.
