[microgood]

The most troubling part of evolution for me is how things got started(sorry if this has already been covered). Somehow a cooling earth had all the bubbling pots of primordial soup, and whereas everything else on the planet follows the second law of thermodynamics, this pool cooks up a bunch of highly organized and structured matter. I'm interested in your thoughts on that.

[Dimensio]

The most troubling part of evolution for me is how things got started(sorry if this has already been covered).

This has been covered. "How things got started", that is, the ultimate origins of life, is outside of the scope of evolution. Evolution does not occur until there are life forms present. Until those life forms are present, anything that happens -- including whatever process caused those life forms to appear where none were present before -- is not evolution and thus not a part of the theory.

[edsheppa]

The most troubling part of evolution for me is how things got started...

By "things" I assume you mean life on earth. I'll let you in on some secrets so you can join the Evilutionist Conspiracy^TM.

#1 How life came to be on earth is unknown at this time (although there are many interesting speculations).

#2 The advent of life on earth may or may not have resulted from an evolutionary process.

#3 However life may have come to be here, evolution is a very well supported theory for its subsequent development over the last few billion years.

There now, since you're part of the Conspiracy^TM you too can sigh and roll your eyes when yet another deevolutionist posts that the origin of life on earth has some necessary bearing on the validity of the theory of evolution.

[tortoise]

and whereas everything else on the planet follows the second law of thermodynamics, this pool cooks up a bunch of highly organized and structured matter.

The second law of thermodynamics does not forbid the reversal of entropy per se, a point many people miss. It only forbids the reversal of entropy in the absence of a positive enthalpy gradient. As it happens, the earth has never had a shortage of positive enthalpy gradients, either a billion years ago or today. The sun provides most of that, and to a lesser extent nuclear decay and other enthalpy sources.

To put it another way, in addition to life, diamonds are also "impossible" unless positive enthalpy gradients reverse entropy, and there is no shortage of diamonds in the universe (de Beers notwithstanding). Quite frankly, the vast majority of non-living matter on this planet is also the result of some measure of entropy reversal by the same mechanism.

[Ichneumon]

The most troubling part of evolution for me is how things got started(sorry if this has already been covered).

Here's a quick intro to the topic.

Somehow a cooling earth had all the bubbling pots of primordial soup, and whereas everything else on the planet follows the second law of thermodynamics, this pool cooks up a bunch of highly organized and structured matter.

Sigh -- not the "second law of thermodynamics" fallacy again... You should find this educational.

I'm interested in your thoughts on that.

It's 4am. I'm not sure I have any worthwhile thoughts left at this time of the morning. Check out those links, and if you have any questions let me know and I'll tackle them tomorrow.