Quote Originally Posted by bu villain
In response to David88vert's post on probability:

I hear a lot of people saying things like "The odds of all these factors coming together in such a perfect way are too remote for it to be by chance." This is not a logical argument for design for two main reasons:

1)
It is true that there are several universal constants which must be finely tuned in order for life as we know it to possible be able to exist. You can not start from an outcome and then claim it was too improbable to happen by chance. Take the lottery for example. Millions of people play, one person wins (sometimes noone wins). That winning person could say "the odds were 1 in a million I would win, it must have been divine intervention". Its true their odds of winning were incredibly minute and yet they won. Do you think that means God must have intervened?

2)
Because we are human, we believe human existence is more special than the existence of anything else. If there were a certian type of rock that could only be found in one tiny region, on one planet in the entire universe, humans wouldn't think twice because we do not think of rocks as special even if the chances of that particular rock existing are more rare than the chance of humans existing. Along these same lines, take poker. What are the odds you will get a A,K,Q,J,10 of spades? The odds are exactly the same as any other particular hand but yet we consider this a special hand and thus would be amazed if we were dealt it.
But can you win the lottery every day for the rest of your life? 1:1,000,000 odds are drastically better than 10_37th. Big difference. If ANY of the items listed went wrong, you wouldn't be typing. How many people do you know that have won every lottery that they have played?

Read about DNA sequencing. There is not way that could happen expressly by chance. Possible - Yes (anything is), Probably - No. There is a difference.

Of course, that does not mean that you can't believe it. Just know that you are taking it on faith. Again, nothing wrong with that. If everyone was the same, we would be robots. Again, you are completely entitled to your opinion and beliefs. I am not belittling that. Just be informed as to why you believe something.