Improbability and the Origin of Life

A examination of the creationist argument that once things become too improbable, they simply cannot happen.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• creationist
• creationism
• atheist
• atheism
• origin
• of
• life
• probability
• snow

[asasasarap]

Misleading.1)There is no thing like one in infinity.It means impossible.2) and the most important. A bizarre outcome (for example in a series of die rolls)may have the same chance to happen with a preguessed not bizzare outcome but NOT with ANY not bizarre outcome.Snowlakes DO HAPPEN ALL THE TIME.Life DOESN'T.Truly bizzare outcomes ARE extremely rare.I don't know if life is designed or not but this video and others that follow the same kind of notion are clearly misleading.

[ubergossen]

@asasasarap I dunno, I somewhat agree but also disagree. Why is it that life is any more bizarre than any other super rare occurrence? It's a bit subjective.

[ubergossen]

@sgprailfan Interesting, but I disagree.

Yes, I am an atheist, but all that means is that I currently don't believe in a god, not that I will never. If it suddenly became apparent to me that there was a god, then I would start believing in one. Therefore I have at least the same amount of freedom.

[universalJok3r]

I think somebody needs to explain to these people that the word improbable is not synonymous with the word impossible.

I think they just give up when they see more than a few variables and just decide, its too unlikely, therefore god did it!

anything that has a probability to begin with has a chance, no matter how small, of occurring, otherwise it would be a 0% case.

[schmeckensie]

@Midgetsforbreakfast that's not the point of the analogy.

The point is that, in retrospect, it would be impossible to pinpoint exactly what will happen. Every event, if specified enough, is infinitely unlikely. I'm obviously not saying a snowflake is like an organism. If it seemed like that, maybe the video isn't clear or else you were misinterpreting it.

[Drahnier123]

this explanation somewhat works except for the Infinity part thus I give it neither thumbs up or down

and a few key points were missed e.g the chance of a specific outcome vs the chance of a general outcome were not quite explored

For the record I'm agnostic

[Midgetsforbreakfast]

I think your comparison from the beginning is rather flawed. Comparing the creation of a snowflake to even just the origin of LIFE, let alone the complex life that we have all over Earth, is like comparing apples to super colliders. One involves a simple chemical/physics process, while the origin of life alone involves processes so complex and mysterious even our best minds are stumped by it.

Now if you were to explain how that one snowflake all of a sudden became a LIVING ORGANISM it works.

[thor123422]

Enjoyed

[EvolvingTruthSeeker]

@ubergossen have to diagree there as well. I would only agree if the dream state was totally lucid.

[ubergossen]

@EvolvingTruthSeeker Yeah for sure. You don't necessarily need drugs, you can compare waking reality to a dream state as well.

[EvolvingTruthSeeker]

@ubergossen exactly. Look up delusion. Even if the whole world is teling me my experience of "reality" is not true. I dont believe them becasue it is reality for me. So having experience of any other state of mind shows you that your own way of seeing things can be questioned. Think about why people believe things, alot of people believe things becasue thats how they were brought up. Indoctranated delusions. If I truly believe something, it becomes my reality, real or not. thats a fact.

[ubergossen]

@EvolvingTruthSeeker should have read the comment i wrote a year ago, haha. I'm assuming you're talking about drugs then. So you can't tell when you're having a sober experience unless you've had an intoxicated one is what i guess you're saying?