[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.

[microgood]

Interesting. Thanks for that info. But I still can't buy the primordial soup deal. Life is so different from anything else in our world. There is input because of outside forces but nothing explains where Carbon based life forms came from. That old double helix is just too different from anything non living and did not bubble out of a pond IMHO.