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What’s the probability of life happening by chance?

The Probability of Life Happening by Chance?

The probability of life happening by chance is impossible! One chemist has calculated the immense odds against amino acids ever combining to form the necessary proteins by undirected means. He estimated the probability to be more than 10 to the 67th to 1 (1067:1) or (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) against even a small protein forming by time and chance, in an ideal mixture of chemicals, in an ideal atmosphere, and given up to 100 billion years (an age 10 to 20 times greater than the supposed age of the Earth). A.J. White, “Uniformitarianism, Probability and Evolution,” Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 1 (June 1972), pp. 32-37.

Mathematicians generally agree that, statistically, any odds beyond 1 in 10 to the 50th (1:1050) have a zero probability of ever happening (“and even that gives it the benefit of the doubt!”). I.L. Cohen, Darwin Was Wrong A Study in Probabilities (P.O. Box 231, Greenvale, New York 11548: New Research Publications, Inc., 1984), p. 205.

Thus, many highly qualified researchers feel they have scientifically proved, beyond question, that the proteins needed for life could never have come into existence by chance or any natural processes. [Paul Erbrich, “On the Probability of the Emergence of a Protein with a Particular Function,” Acta Biotheoretica, Vol. 34 (1985), pp. 53-80 (quote is from the abstract emphasis added).]

Therefore, Dr. Wilder-Smith concluded: “It is emphatically the case that life could NOT arise spontaneously in a primeval soup of this kind.” Arthur E. Wilder-Smith in Willem J.J. Glashouwer and Paul S. Taylor, The Origin of Life (PO Box 1167, Marysville WA 98270-1167, USA: Eden Films and Standard Media, 1983).

In His service,
BibleAsk Team

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