[asveikau]

My background is nothing to do with biology, but it has struck me for years that natural selection is just a broad statement about probabilities that can be applied almost everywhere.

It is something like: if something has high odds to exist, given enough time to possibly exist, it will exist.

So an inert protein coming into existence? Sure. Better odds to be replicated? Then it'll happen. We ascribe agency or will to survive. Those probably help the odds in a lot of cases. But the concept is broader than that.