I agree that it's tempting to use teleological shorthand to address natural selection. That's because we think intuitively in terms of personification. This is precisely atheism's positive challenge, to stretch our mind so we can grasp what it means to say that life derives from nonlife. What could a nonliving universe be such that it gives rise to organisms?

Using the mysteries here as pretexts to return to theism, though, is quite dubious.