Question about Evolution

[paulpablo]

I know this is a stupid question, but bear with me here. This is not skepticism of any kind, but a mere question.

If a cause of natural selection is mutation, how would that work, if mutation is a random process? I'm stuck here. If natural selection is adaptation, then how could genetic mutation be a part in it if it's random? Thanks in advance.

I'm no biologist, just to clear that up before I begin.

Off the top of my head natural selection isn't mutation.  Natural selection is simply the process that certain living things live, breed and pass on their genetics and others don't.  The genetic traits that caused the breeding/continued living were passed on.  The genetic traits that hindered breeding or survival aren't passed on because these living things died and didn't breed.

The mutation is what happens before the selection. It's not that the mutation is the selection that doesn't really make much sense in any way that I can see. 

The same with adaption.  There's no goal or direction in mutation.  The living beings that mutated a certain way that benefited their breeding or general survival, survived and bred better than those that didn't.