Paley might better have used the Potter than the Watchmaker in his 1800 demonstration since the older story of Creation, the second version in Genesis--the forming of Man from Clay--a play on the words Adam and adama, used that analogy. Some translations of Ge 1,1-2 leave the impression that creation began with the formless and empty earth already in place.
Yes, the gap theory. The Hebrew word translated 'void' means 'destruction', among other shades of meaning. Later in Isaiah, God declares that He did not create the world 'in vain', the same word translated slightly differently.
The logical triangulation suggests that Eden and the present reality was built upon the destruction of an earlier order. This would explain the existence of the serpent in the first place, a holdover from the previous judgment that brought 'destruction' (darkness) upon the face of the deep in v.1.
This would also explain the mandate of rulership and conquest that God placed upon Adam. He knew there was an enemy out there, a resistance to His authority. Adam was to be His general, His sub-King. But treason was committed, and we have the present state of affairs.
Personally, I think this explains the sick proclivities of human nature as well as the nobility inherent in us all, much more convincingly than primordial amino acids. But then, I'm not a scientist.