‘Ol Entropy
When considering the ‘big picture’ historical view of the origins of life, one conflict that usually arises is the conflict between the laws of entropy and the progression of materialistically driven life forming evolution. The common debate from the theists states that evolution could not be driven by material mechanisms because the laws of entropy states that in thermodynamic systems, things by principle fall into states which are more chaotic.
Now life would have to progress quite against this principle for quite some time to give rise to life as we know it. The usual counter from the materialist is that entropic principles are only at play in closed systems and since the Earth is an open system, excess energy from the sun enters one way into the system giving the possibility for complexity to arise.
Based on what I know about thermodynamics and chemistry it seems that even this proposition is an inaccurate articulation of the physical laws. It seems to me that energy entering systems would if anything only increase the level of disorder. Physically speaking, when energy is introduced to material systems events progress faster and exhibit higher rates of physical movement measured in temperature. This it seems does not lead down the road of increasing complexity but leave the system in a similar but faster more chaotic state. So where does this leave materialistic evolution?