What is an organism? Sounds like the question he is really asking is why is life or the life force different from a machine. Its an odd question to me.
I would answer the question with a rift on the temporal nature of each ... machines are stuck in linear time whereas organisms (the soul; not the spirit, the soul, as in all living things; we humans have a spirit component, too) exist in planar time and use linear temporal aspects for expression in linear time.
Why does it seem "odd" to you, valkyry1? Surely you notice that there is a significant difference between you and, say, your vacuum cleaner. It seems to me (at least) that this difference is worth exploring/explaining.
geezzzzz...for a moment there I thought the headline was speaking about an Orgasmism....OH GOSH TOO MUCH WINE...LOL!!