JWeinCom said:
The results of you in particular being born are astronomical. There are about 200 million sperm in the male ejaculation. So right off the bat, you have a one in 200 million chance. That sperm had to exist within the same month as the egg that created you. To make the math easier, we'll call that one in 2 billion. Of course, we have to factor in that a woman is only ovulating about one week of the month. So, that's one in 8 billion now. If we took into accounts years and stuff, that'd make it messier, so let's assume a 100% chance that your parents would have sex on the year you were born. That's just the odds after the fact of your parents having sex. We'll forget about the likelyhood of them meeting for now, cause I can't really quantify this. But, the chances of each of your parents being born would have to be the same... So, that's now about one in 500 billion. And of course, their parents had to be a certain combination of sperm and egg, so the odds are again multiplied by 8 billion. So thats... 4 trillion... 32 trillion.... 240 trillion... One in 1.6 quadrillion.... So the odds of the particular lifeform known as "you" existing is at less than one in a quadrillion. This is only going to your grandparent's generation, and assuming there is a 100% chance that all of your parents/grandparents/etc. will meet. If we calculated the actual odds, starting from let's say the year 0 CE, I'm quite possitive the odds of your existence would be less than one in a centillion (one with 303 zeroes). Like... way less... So, you were incredibly incredibly lucky to be born. Does that mean that there was a higher power orchestrating this? Who picked out each sperm, played matchmaker for your parents, and their parents and so on? I'm guessing that you think not. This would be a weird thing to think, because it is only a lucky event from your perspective. To the billions upon billions of upon billions of other potential children who could have been born, this was not a special occurence, or a particularly good occurence. It was just a thing that happened. The event only becomes lucky when you assume that you being created is the end goal. And, so it is with the universe. If you assume that the goal of the universe was the creation of this particular form of life, then it seems incredibly lucky. But, this is an incredibly human biased perspective. What if we don't assume that humanity existing and thriving was the end goal? Then, it doesn't seem so lucky anymore. If we start from the creation of Earth, there are potentially billions of other animals that can be the dominant species of the planet at this point in time. This isn't a particularly lucky outcome for them. Going back further, if the universe was created in a different way, it may have been possible for trillions and trillions of other lifeforms to arise. This is not a lucky outcome for them. Even this is biased towards life. As living beings, we naturally think life is great. But, considering the size and scope of the universe, one particular planet having little weird things posting on internet forums doesn't seem very significant.
To sum it up, I'll give one more example. The odds of getting a royal flush in poker are about one in 30,000. The odds of getting the 3 of clubs, five of diamonds, Jack of spades, 8 of hearts, and the 6 of hearts is exactly the same. So, why do we consider it so much more lucky to get a royal flush than that hand? Because we are biased towards our own success. The universe existing as it does is a royal flush for humanity. But, outisde of humanity, it's simply one hand that could be dealt. It is no more or less special than any other hand that may have been dealt. |
Yes, but in my case I was created on purpose by my parents (going by their story lol). Chances are especially with technology and resources to help my parents that someone was going to be born regardless. Yes, it was lucky that I was born, but more than likely someone is going to be born because it was done on purpose. I just can't see the universe (going by big bang theory) and earth being created with all the life forms by chance. It seems like everything had to be made on purpose. My opinion anyways.
