Counterpoint, "Entropy is Life": Diffusion is an entropy driven process, and is fundamental to most biological processes. Plus other more specific entropy driven reactions [0 + google it]. Lazy metaphors...
Counterpoint to your counterpoint :) I think local entropy has to decrease first to create the concentration gradients that are harvested by diffusion. So life must also rely on decreasing the local entropy. All depends on how you define the system.
You can't decrease local entropy without increasing it overall. We can only live by moving towards higher entropy, it's how we tell the past from the future.