Explain "chance" in scientific terms.?

Chance is a mathematical statement of a probability that a desired event will actually occur in the future.

There is no product to chance. Chance does nothing.

The problem you are having is that you want a natural explanation for a supernatural event. This is illogical.

Living from non living is not something from nothing.

It is an arrangement of none living matter into a pattern that exhibits all the traits associated with the state of existence that we've labeled life.

These patterns are simply the reality that is this universe. The way it works.

Whether the fact these patterns arise is because the rules were set by a creator or they simply occurred by themselves is a mystery.

Now admittedly the possibility that they arose by themselves is something that boggles the mind but the fact we find it to be incredible to the point that it's hard to believe bares no reflection on whether that possibility is genuinely true.

This is why using this incredulity for arguments in favour of Gods is called an argument from incredulity fallacy.

Edit: You keep saying that living from nonliving is something from nothing, but what is the difference between a non living object and a living object? All the same materials etc are there. There's nothing new except a self replicating pattern.

If that pattern is an intrinsic aspect of reality then life from non living matter is an inevitable eventually whenever the conditions arise that allow that pattern to form.

Why is everything in the universe fractal? Why do crystals grow? Why do the electron arrangements around atoms seek out things to connect with or consume in accordance with the simple interplay of forces?

Life is but one of many complex patterns, did it produce the pattern that allowed it to start acting in a self replicating manner as dictated by the code that arose in the form of DNA? No. It is formed of it.

It is impossible to state at this point whether the pattern was created or is simply a natural occurrence

There is no eternity in the past since time was yet to be a "thing." At least that is one theory, I don't have much education on that matter.

Chance is the possibility of something happening. That is about as simple as a definition gets.

A singularity that resulted in an entire universe via big bang certainly has a chance, a possibility of happening, and it just so happens that it did happen.

Your additional details poses a completely different question that I will attempt to answer. Abiogenesis suggests that life came from non-living matter. We are carbon-based life, humans are mostly water. Carbon and water are not by themselves living matter, but life is comprised of non-living matter.

You mistake is believing that life arose from non-existence, but non-living matter exists and life came from non-living matter, therefore life came from existence. Life did not come from nothing, in fact if the universe came from a singularity of all matter within it then the universe also did not come from nothing.

SO, stop saying everything (life, the universe) came from nothing because that is not true.

@questioner: no that is not what eternity means. Eternity means infinite time.

Also, life from non-life is not "something from nothing." Magically making a bunny appear out of a hat could be something from nothing, but molding a pot out of clay is something from something else. Life from non-life is something from something else.

If you want to talk about the universe and conservation of matter, you need to talk to someone who's educated in quantum physics. Al I know about quantum physics is that Newton's laws get thrown out the window.

Well you cant explain why something exist by saying something existed (like God). You have no explanation for gods existence so it's NOT an answer to why something exists rather than not!

Then there is the concept of nothing. This concept in the abstract, philosophical sense is empirically nonsense. Even the emptiest of vacuum is not what we would call nothing. I would say chance in the physical sense is the in-deterministic quantum mechanics. Lawrence Krauss may be the one to check out for more info.

singularity, the instant before the big bang, is all the matter/energy (in the observable universe) compressed into a single point. This is not nothing. this is everything.

the idea of a sentient being controlling and creating all matter should need a great deal of evidence to support it. Christianity doesn't support this idea, it only provides a book of old folk tales from the middle east.

<edit>the onliy difference between matter and matter we classify as living is that living matter can make copies of itself, for most life this through the DNA double helix splitting. Is a virus alive? it is a simple chain of proteins that can't replicate itself, only with the help of the cell of another life form can it make copies. Life is not special or magical, it's just a chemical definition that you probably don't understand

There's no reason to believe there was nothing, that's a claim by Creationists, not physicists. In fact, at the moment "before" the Big Bang, time did not exist, thus it was an infinite moment, like being at the even horizon of a black hole where the gravity has slowed time to a near stop. Your argument is based on a false premise so it does not follow.

I'm bit surprised that no one (that I remember seeing) has mentioned the uncertainty principle. While it applies to quantum mechanics, it is sometimes misused and confused with a somewhat similar effect in physics, called the observer effect, which notes that measurements of certain systems cannot be made without affecting the systems.

This impact, especially in the quantum mechanics area, could easily be labeled as "chance" as it has a very similar meaning.

Not everyone will agree with my assessment.

There was never 'nothing', this is a straw man argument put forth by creationists

Chance (i.e. probability) functions within the laws of physics or whatever superstructure generates them, which has always existed.

EDIT: "Elaborate on how the living can come from the non-living." - It's called evolution. I'm sure you've heard of it. It is not something coming from nothing, it is just a change of 'form'. Your argument is analagous to me saying that if I write a book or make a cup of tea I have created something from nothing.

No one claims there was "nothing" except for Creationists. Also, science is a tool to discover how things work and scientific laws are just our descriptions of how they work, they're not physical entities that one day just poofed into existence.

Stop embarrassing yourself.

I'm a philosophical determinist so I don't believe anything has a chance of occurring, of course the determinants of everything will create a probability of that thing occurring.