Can we please cut the crap about humans not being able to create a living thing so therefore it is impossible for nature?
For us humans to be able to do so, we have to be able to work on the atomic level to get everything the way it should be. Humans can't do that (yet) but nature can.
All these ridiculous comparisons here.... sigh...
Lets cut down your list a bit tuppence.
Who says that the first living things was in a hostile environment right away? The need to defend itself may well have come later on in the process.
Wo says that the energy taken in had to be broken down and stored? It very well may have been used in the way it was taken in. It is not always necessary to convert energy before you are able to do something usefull with it.
Who says that the first living thing had to get rid of anything? It may very well have been the case that this ability came later in the process. The first living thing could have had a very short lifespan as long as it had the time to reproduce itself.
So, all we have left now is:
1. take in energy
2. use that energy
3. replicate
That does not need to be very complex. Taking in and using energy may sound very difficult but it absolutely doesn't have to be. If you are in the sea and you use the kinetic energy from a wave to make yourself turn around you already accomplished 1 and 2.
So all we have left is replication and if we look in the TalkOrigins FAQ we see that that does not have to be very complicated either.
Why make things more difficult than they are?