I had just wanted to add to your last comment, I think we are in violent agreement here! Saying evolution is "random" is simplified to the point of inaccuracy—I would say it is probabilistic.

There is definitely something to be said about going towards success. I'm thinking of the RNA world hypothesis about the origin of life wherein RNA molecules both held replicable genetic information (as DNA does) and catalyzed the chemical reactions to replicate itself. The self-sustaining molecules won out because... they sustained themselves. Life now is pretty damn good at "being successful", except when it's threatened by other life being more successful, which looks like moving away from failure.

Be careful saying that beneficial traits will necessarily become more prevalent. It's all probability. If getting the long-term better trait necessitates going through a worse trait in the short-term, it may never happen. As an example with arbitrary numbers, say staying in fever another 1 to 5 hours is actually disadvantageous, even if staying 5-10 hours is advantageous.

I once saw an image depicting different cultures' perspectives on the heavenly bodies that would've answered you wonderfully. One was that the sun, moon, and stars were big balls moving around a planar Earth... another that the sky was a dome and they were little holes cut out to reveal the infinite fire beyond.