entropy and its implications on "design"

[mikech]

first off, i'm an agnostic. i also don't have much of a science background. but there's something i'd like to ask the scientists out there about entropy and the logical consequences of this law of physics.

so, years ago in my college intro physics class i learned that entropy will always increase, that the universe is moving from a more "ordered" to an ever-more "disordered" state, until one day the "heat death of the universe" is reached. so how did WE get here? i understand that if energy is wielded in a way so that the entropy in one system increases, the entropy in another can be decreased, like forcing all the air in a room into a small corner, or assembling a bicycle, but then wouldn't that imply some sort of design? that a designer (some external organizing input) used energy to decrease entropy in this little corner of the universe which allowed such complexity and order to arise? how could a closed system, on its own, randomly organize (how's that for an oxymoron) and form life?

even though i'm not a theist, i'd like to hear atheists explain this to me.