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Abiogenesis

Evolution explains how life once started continued to get more and more complex. Trillions of individuals and going for trillions of generations a very very small change can build up. Human history simply can not prepare your intuition for that.

A World Without Life​

But to understand abiogenesis you need to imagine what a world without life would be like. Molecules will replicate by themselves LONG before they form a cell. The ocean was filled with organic compounds, but none of it you could call life. One theory proposes microscopic pits in the volcanic vents under the ocean served as proto-cells before a cell formed. There is certainly no reason that RNA style replication could not proceed in small spherical cavities in a wall. Another theory proposes layers and layers of peptide based membrane. These membranes for naturally if the molecules are around. But between the layers the replicating RNA would have a protected environment to duplicate molecules.

Gradual Development of Cell​

The apologists would like to say that the cell had to suddenly appear all of a sudden, and then they give a bogus figure for how unlikely that would happen that it all came together at once. However, there is no reason to suppose that it happened all at once. There was a billion years where molecules were simply replicating but not in a form we could call "life". But, in that chicken-soup like ocean, as soon a free floating cell accidentally hit up a method of splitting, that would fuel an exponential growth that would quickly fill the oceans with life.

The Law of Biogenesis​

The "Law of Biogenesis" says that life always comes from previous life. The fact is that life reproduces, so if you see life today, it is a sure bet that it came from life before. Life is an ongoing chain of proliferation.

However it only works where it works. In a world filled with life, and life you find obviously had a progenitor. Any completely novel life would be gobbled up before it had time to stretch its legs. So it is no longer possible in the world at large for new life to start.

The Law of Biogenesis does not apply in a world where is no life at all. It would not rule out a new life forming, and that new life has a chance to survive if there is no life around to eat it up.