There is mounting evidence for a non-random nature of mutations for
organisms in stressful situations (lack of normal food source, for
example). Useful mutations seem to far more likely than "mere chance"
would dictate. This called "adaptive mutation"
See Cairns, et al., Nature (335), 1988, "The Origin of Mutations" as a
starting place.
Also an interesting report of the number of point mutations that really
occur when bacteria "acquire" immunity. It involved, I believe, 9
simultaneous point mutations ! (I don't have the reference with me now,
but it was a chemistry industry journal).
God may have invested life with "adaptive" tools that we are just
beginning to see to power of..
Al