quote:
The improbability of a thing occurring is not proof of impossibility of it occurring. It could well be that this is the only planet in all the universe that has life on it because it is a very improbably event. And if you divide the surface of the planet into all the different types of environments and do the same for all the other planets and moons and asteroids in the solar system alone you will have billionsXbillions of little experimental crucibles for carrying out experiments and if that is carried out over several billion year periods (4.55 billion year old earth, in a 13.7+ billion year old universe) with multiple "experiments" in a {day?week?month?} time period, and do the same for all the billions of stellar systems throughout the universe it does not take long to create an equally mind boggling number that reduces 1e14billion to a definite probability. I'm at 1e36 already ...
I think this is a very important point that many abiogenesis detractors miss. We have to divide the chances of life across all planets that have conditions conducive for life. Until they have this figure, they can not readily apply their distorted probabilities. Just for an analogy, if we assume that there are 1 million hospitals in the world (just a rough guess), the chances of each person being born in a particular hospital is astronomical. I could say that me being born in a particular place is one in million, so improbable that I shouldn't exist. If these are the types of distortions that creationists insist on using, then our little opposition on this site probably won't be needed. Education really is the key.
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