Faith writes:
Actually I haven't claimed anything EXCEPT that the "astronomical improbability of abiogenesis" leaves us with the only reasonable alternative explanation for the indisputable fact that "life is here." A Designer.
You seem determined in believing that "astronomical odds" means that the result of the event is designed. Why? You can in no way support this claim. You are basically stating that things with long odds can’t possibly happen without Devine intervention, which is nonsense.
Just use yourself as an example. Do you understand anything at all about meiosis? Well, just in case, here’s a very simple (and mostly incorrect) explanation of the process. During meiosis the chromosome count of reproductive cells (gametes) is reduced by half. This, of course, insures that upon the formation of a zygote (a fertilized egg), the chromosome count is "restored" to the diploid number. For example, humans have 23 pairs of homologous chromosomes (46 total = diploid). This means that our gametes each contain only of each pair, for a total of 23 chromosomes (= haploid). When we reproduce, the other half is supplied by our mate and the offspring has a chromosome count of 46 again (haploid + haploid = diploid).
During meiosis a single diploid cell will eventually become four haploid cells (well, four for guys but only one functional cell for women, but that’s nether here nor there), but as to not complicate things any more that necessary, I’m going to ignore how you get four from one. However, also during meiosis an event called "Independent Assortment" occurs, which basically states that when the chromosome count is reduced from 46 to 23, how each pair separates into a “new” cell is independent of how any other pair may separate. This process will be my the focus from here on out.
Maybe it would help to think of your chromosomes as pairs of shoes. Let’s say you have 23 pairs of shoes in your closet (and your mate has 23 pairs in his). Now let’s say you want to make a third closet of 23 pairs, with (23 individual shoes) coming from you, and the other half (23 individual shoes) coming from him. Well, in order to do this you must first reduce your closet count by half (as does he, but we’ll just focus on your shoes for now). This is an extremely oversimplified explanation of what happens during meiosis. You take of each pair of shoes (for a total of 23) and put them in a new closet. But which shoe (right or left) from each pair do you choose? For any given pair you choose (whether it's the right or the left), that choice will play no role whatsoever in which shoe from any other pair you choose. That’s independent assortment, and it results in a large number of possible “right/left” combinations.
Ok, so now let me ask you this. How many different ways can you separate just your shoes? In other words, if you needed a separate closet for each possible arrangement of shoes, how many closets would you need? For example, let’s say that in the “first” closet you placed all of the right shoes. You now have closet number one with 23 right shoes. But of course, that’s not the only way you could have done it, is it? So now let’s say that instead you did it as follows: In closet number two you place the left shoe of the first pair, and for the remaining pairs you used the rights. That’s another closet now filled with 23 shoes ( of each pair) arranged such that you have 1 left from pair number one and 22 rights from pairs two through twenty-three. In yet another arrangement (closet number three) you place the right shoe for pair number two and for the remaining 22 pairs (pair one, and pairs 3 -23) you used the lefts. Continue this process until you have used every pair of shoes in every possible right/left combination. How many closets would you need? Would it surprise you to know that you would need 8,388,608 closets. And to make matters even worse, your mate would require that same number. Now think for a moment, of the number of different ways you can “recombine” your closets with his, in order to get a “new” closet of 23 pairs ( from you and from him). For any given “new” closet, you have over 8 million closest to choose from, as does he.
So now, what are the odds that you, Faith, actually exist as you are? Remember, the odds are greater than eight million to one that the possible chromosomes supplied to you by your mother were the ones you would end up with. And the odds are greater than eight million to one that the other half, supplied by your father, were the ones you would end up with. So, the odds against you having the chromosomes that you do are 70,400,000,000,000 to 1 (8,388,608 X 8,388,608) . imagine! Now factor in the odds of your mother receiving the chromosomes she did as well as your father, and then factor in your grandparents and great grandparents...and by going back only three generations you get a staggeringly HUGE number against the probability that you would eventually end up as you are now . but yet it happened.
(Also keep in mind that another event occurs during meiosis called “Cross Over”, which throws a monkey wrench into the whole process by swapping portions of homologous chromosomes prior to Independent Assortment occurring. So the odds I just gave you are a “best case” scenario . the actual odds are even greater!)
Are you the result on Devine intervention, Faith, or are you simply the result of “random” events that resulted in you getting the chromosomes that you did? My claim (and RAZD’s as I understand him) is that the odds are meaningless because here you are . as you are. The probability is one. You, however, cannot grasp the fact that even things with long odds happen every day without the need to call upon some sort of Devine intervention.
™ Version 4.2
