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First of all - nothing 'defies' the 2nd law of thermodynamics - not even life. In a closed system entropy will increase to a maximum, yes. But living things are not a closed system. They are, in part at least, machines for consuming energy and changing it into different forms, and once you start to add energy to any system it accordingly permits localised decreases in entropy. No Laws are defied in the process. Most things we see in the universe are localised descreases in entropy, stars, solar systems, planets galaxies etc - all very unlikely if you are trying to create one randomly from their constituent parts, and yet there they are.
The fact that Szostack has not been successful means nothing. The composition of earths early atmosphere may have been different to what our models show, his suppositions about the mechanisms of the appearance of early life (about which you correctly say we know very little) may be a little (or even way) off. But by far the biggest problem is time - Szostack has had a few years, and a laboratory, whereas life had a few billion years and the entire earth to generate those first steps towards life.
Like you said - we know bugger all about life, and even less about how it started. I think we need to know more before we go altering our view of how the universe works
Adam
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