This argument about whether evolution proceeded by random genetic mutations or whether there was some guidance which produced an "intelligent design" begs the question 'how did life start in the first place?'. If you're in the scientific mode, you have to believe that there is some process inherent in the universe which, under the right conditions, can generate life. This is what Darwin and others meant by "spontaneous generation." If you accept spontaneous generation, you also must accept the fact that life can start - and then evolve - anywhere in the universe and is not unique to earth. The whole question of God's role in all this is basically moot if you think about it. It boils down to 'Did God create life and then guide it's evolution?' or 'Did God create the universe with an inherent process for generating life and then evolving it." The latter would presage a more clever God than the former but the religiosos want to hold onto an anthropomorphic God, one who makes things and then places them on the earth much as a modelmaker would make a model and then place it on a display.
The real question is 'Does evolution proceed strictly by random genetic mutation or is there another process (involving God or not) which comes into play than pure randomness? Darwin, Lamarck and others believed there was. They believed that characteristics developed during an individual's lifetime could be genetically transmitted to their offspring. There also could be another process involved where one's conscious or subconscious mind might affect genetic mutations. We know that sexual selection affects the gene pool on a macro level since undesirable characteristics are weeded out due to a lack of being sexually selected and vice versa. This is a conscious process that affects the change in the gene pool.
So I think that there well may be factors other than random genetic mutations which come into play which guide evolution without having to postulate that there is an outside entity (God) who is guiding it. God may have built-in a process in the universe which guides evolution according to a multiplicity of factors.
