Science

Big Numbers Are Hard

You can’t prove (or disprove) the existence of God with math

Photos by Dan-Cristian Pădureț on Unsplash (L) | Sistine Chapel by Jacek Halicki from Wikimedia Commons (R)

Suppose the probability of life occurring spontaneously is the same as a tornado traveling through a junkyard and assembling a working car…

I read the other day that there must be a God because (a) the chance of life appearing without a Creator is too small, and (b) the world is too complex and perfectly constructed to be an accident.

I don’t know much about God, but it does seem like scientific arguments about Him/Her/Them always — just like the ones above — end up being pointless. Watching people try is a reminder that the human brain isn’t really wired for big numbers or complex topics. I’ve taught a lot of math, maybe I can help. A little, anyway.

So, here’s an “easy” one: is Earth the only inhabited planet in the universe?

Start small

Of course, if life can’t occur spontaneously then it’s going to take some sort of creator to make it happen. Problem solved, we can all go home. But if we’re going to make a scientific argument then we’ll have to assume it can. Unfortunately, we don’t have much to go on — how likely is it?