Are they? Which animals? Some seem smart and maybe do it. Needs strong justification.

> probably through being trained on many examples of the laws of nature doing their thing

Is that how they can reason? Why do you think so? Sounds like something that needs strong justification.

> then why couldn't a statistical model be?

Maybe because that is not how anything in the world attained the ability to reason.

A lot of animals can see. They did not have to train for this. They are born with eyes and a brain.

Humans are born with the ability to recognize pattern in what we see. We can tell objects apart without training.