> What scientist do, ideally, is intelligent manipulation of pre-existing materials.
Yes. Sometimes it takes intelligence to create an experiment that reflects a natural setting. But the fact that intelligence is required to create a nature-replicating experiment does not in the slightest imply that intelligence is required in the natural setting itself.
Perhaps, perhaps not, but the fact that intelligence has been unable to produce matter, energy and the laws of physics ex nihilo or even offer a rational explanation of same does imply a unique being capable of such wondrous creation.
How do they know it's a "nature-replicating experiment"? Nobody was there to observe the conditions under which, in theory, viruses spontaneously generated from some non-living substance. Circular reasoning.