13 May '12 14:23>
Originally posted by boononOk here is the thing.
Hi,
I would say by design.
I have been doing a little research lately on mathematical probabilities.
I am neither a mathematician nor a scientist so the numbers and concepts are a little hard for me to follow.
From what I have been studying the probability of a living cell to form by itself is next to zero.
I know that you are talking about stars and galaxies but I think they fit together with your question (chance/design).
If you were to take some complex arrangement of atoms in a molecule (like say DNA) and ask what are the
odds of a bunch of atoms randomly forming themselves into that pattern then you will get a probability of
1 in some stupidly large number.
However that is not how molecules (or DNA) forms.
Atoms don't just come together randomly.
If you take a mixture of atoms of different elements, stick them in a container, and add energy (heat) then they
will start to organise themselves.
As the atoms move around they will collide with and bond to other elements to form molecules.
Different types of atoms (elements) bond to other atoms more strongly than others and some pairings of elements
don't work as the atoms really don't like to bond with each other.
For example many elements bond strongly to oxygen.
And some elements don't like bonding at all.
So while these initially free atoms might start out by bonding to the first thing they hit, as they continue to whiz around
they will continue to have collisions and weak bonds will likely break and strong ones survive, so the elements will form
predictable molecules based on the elements that like to bond to each other.
Different levels of energy (heat/light/electricity) in different environments with different combinations of starter elements
will result in different types of molecules being formed.
Some chemical reactions happen preferentially on certain 'catalysts' which make those reactions easier and more likely.
Some molecules that form act as catalysts that make subsequent reactions more likely.
And some molecules actually actively build copies of themselves, they self replicate (in the right environment).
Now the formation of a successful self replicating molecule requires a fairly long string of events to happen in the right order.
However in the conditions likely to exist on the early earth there were the relevant chemicals coming together in trillions
of different ways every second over the entire planets surface for tens of millions of years.
And the earth is almost certainly only one of millions if not billions of potential locations life could form in in the universe.
So the question of the probability of life forming is thus not like the question of how likely are you to win the lottery.
But more like the question of how likely is it that someone will win the lottery.
The odds of someone winning the lottery are pretty good, which is why it happens most weeks.
Unlikely events are in fact not just likely to happen, they are inevitable.
This is the problem conspiracy theorists have.
They look at events like 9:11 and scrutinise the events of the day in huge detail and they spot coincidences and unexplained
and possibly inexplicable unlikely events and coincidences and then because they think that because those events and coincidences
are unlikely that they couldn't have happened by chance they see it as evidence of a conspiracy.
It's not. Unlikely events and coincidences happen all the time.