[tortoise]

Nonsense! All forms of order require some amount of energy for their very composition. If you don't have enough energy in your system for a certain composition of order, then you can't have that composition in your system; it would be impossible.

This is true. And life on this planet has had a virtually unlimited supply of external energy for as long as we have had evidence life existed. Therefore, there is no contradiction in the premise that arbitrarily large amounts of spontaneous entropy reduction are possible in living organisms. This is a core point; entropy (or lack thereof) in organisms is only relevant in the absence of vast external enthalpy gradients. Since such gradients exist, the reduction in entropy in living organisms has never been a hurdle to their existence.

[Southack]

"Since such gradients exist, the reduction in entropy in living organisms has never been a hurdle to their existence."

Did you actually intend to say "Since such gradients exist, the increase in entropy in living organisms has never been a hurdle to their existence?"