Why? That's my basic question. As a non-scientist, I can understand the idea of combinations of molecules eventually forming life, but I'm still hazy on why such a molecule should want to survive and to reproduce, any more than a helium atom "wants" to. I get the idea of an evolved survival and reproduction instinct, but I'm interested in how it evolved in life in the first place. I guess it had to be inherent in the first complex molecules that we call "life", otherwise said life wouldn't have got off the ground.
Even more basic question: is the answer going to be one of those that makes a non-scientist like me go all glazy-eyed?