Statistically, spilling ink will eventually result in that poem.

It may take a billion attempts, but it'll happen eventually.

Who says that didn't happen with the world?

One in a billion? I would hardly agree. The odds of such perfection coming about by accident have to be much lower.

[btw, it's hard to argue with statistics, but perhaps can someone explain why throughout recorded history no Pulitzer winning poem has thus been created?]

And this is an "enlightened" opinion -- someone who would believe that the world is a one in a trillion freak accident, rather than allowing the rational idea of a creator to enter his mind!

Yes "statistically" it is a possibility that the beautiful skyscraper you are walking by is an accident. No architects, builders, electricians, plumbers, or interior designers, just a garbage dump where people dumped bricks, cement and steel throughout the years. But which fool would believe that?

Okay, what would you say the chances of that ink pot forming such a poem by itself would be? One in a billion?

Well if the chances of life forming by itself were one in a billion... think about it... there's easily a billion planets in the universe, and we only know for certain that this one planet has life on it really, don't we? We only believe design exists because are ourselves examples of design, so we can marvel at ourselves. It doesn't have to be one in a billion, it can be whatever you want it to be, but there are so many planets in the universe... and the truth is we don't know the actual probability so we can't argue in this way at all!

Editor's Comment

When people use the theological argument of design to prove g-d's existence, they often forget to mention the many imperfections of our world. If that ink would've spilled and created nothing at all or just a blotch on the paper it wouldn't have been as impressive. We sometimes forget all the genetic mutations and deadly diseases. We can't use the argument of design unless we can account for all the mistakes and imperfections of the world as well. Furthermore, a site like this should be promoting the idea that belief in a g-d is just that a belief and one can never KNOW that g-d exists no matter how pious you are. If it were possible to prove g-d, everyone would know the proof. I am an orthodox Jew but I am also a philosopher and therefore I have accepted that I will never come to KNOW that g-d exists but that simply put, faith in g-d of Abraham makes me a Jew.

Editor's Comment

The idea that "anything is possible" over a long enough time frame is absolutely absurd, and NOT statistically accurate.

For instance, is there ever a 1 in a billion chance that it can rain and not rain in the exact same time at the exact same place?

There is the reality of -impossibility-. The rules and logic of the universe are never violated. If ink is spilled onto a paper, it is an impossibility that it would ever create a poem in say an english font. Not 1 in billion, not 1 in infinite, impossible.

To validate this point, on the longest time frame possible, infinity, flipping a coin will be what work out to what? 50/50. That's statistics.

There is no such thing as "random", random is simply ignorance of the variables involved - in any, and all cases.

"Statistically, spilling ink will eventually result in that poem."

Or - famous: "If you put a monkey in front of the key board, sooner or later it will write Shakespeare".

Take only 10 letters keyboard.

The probability:

To strike specific letter 0.1%.

Two letters 0.01%.

...

10-letters-word is 0.1^10% (10 zerous before 1).

...

20-letters-word is 0.1^20%.

Take a monkey that can type 10 strokes / second (To be fare - I can't type as fast...)

In one year it will hit:

365*24*60*60*10 ~= 3*10^8.

For our fast typing monkey -

To randomly come up with 10-letters-word would take ~30 years.

20-letters-word? - 3*10^11 years... Longer than 13.7B.

1 in a billion would be probable. But we are speaking about much, much, much lower probabilities...

If scientists can give physical proof that life existed millions of years ago how does G-d fit into this equation? According to the torah life started less than 6,000 years ago.

Editor's Comment