You flatter me @cngrobler :) I simply lack the time management skills to realize when I've spent too long writing a rambling comment, and that twists itself into such elaboration and intricacy.
I don't really think 'slime', as I've so cursorily used here, is just the starting point per-say. Extant microorganisms have had just as long to evolve as humans for instance, and far more generations to do it in. In this way we could be tempted to say that the microorganisms are "most evolved" due to having the most generations to do their evolving, but my spine shivers at such hierarchical diction.
I must say "...protruding the fundamental parent of it's being..." did confuse me a bit. If you mean to say that what I'm talking about involves evolution in some way I agree wholeheartedly.
Evolutionary theory is intimately connected with all things biology. Recognition of it's veracity is likely the biggest factor that sheds light on the mysterious machinations and forms found in organisms. I see no way to divorce the two, evolution and biology.
As far as starting points go, and the origins of life (extraterrestrial or otherwise), I suppose I'm talking more about abiogenesis. This is the concept that life does arise from what we consider nonliving matter under certain conditions. While far from being a laid out process we are sure happens, at least when I last researched it, it seems to me a real contender for explaining the starting point of life.