So you’re telling me there’s a chance?

I might be the only one, but I love “Dumb and Dumber.” Maybe it reminds me of myself (a little). This is my favorite part:

In other words, not a chance. (Of course Lloyd doesn’t see it that way. Later on he finds out she’s already married and asks “What was all that one-in-a-million talk?”)

Two nights ago I had a dream that I looked out my bedroom window to an open wheat field and watched dozens of workers just scatter, running in all directions. A minute later an asteroid landed in the field and skidded past my apartment building. Weird dream. But then I looked up the chances of an asteroid hitting the earth. The chances of an “extinction-causing asteroid” blowing us all sky high are the same as Lloyd’s chances with his special someone – one in million (http://www.ucolick.org/~mountain/AAA/impact/).

Personally, I dont think there’s anything to worry about.

And I haven’t heard of anyone else being worried either. Given our propensity to blow things out of proportion, I must say I’m surprised that there aren’t lots of very vocal scientists running around shouting the sky is falling. And I’m quite thankful that Al Gore is not running with the idea to make a sequel – “An Even Less Convenient Truth.” Maybe even Al Gore has the sense to see that the chances make it essentially impossible. Maybe. But I doubt it.

Why do I doubt it? Because people are convinced that even smaller chances (and not just a little bit smaller like one in a million and one) have certainly played out in the past. Consider our home planet. This is a planet that is just right. Its circling a sun thats just right. At just the right distance. With just the right moon (for tides; tides are important for ecosystems and such).

And then there’s life. I mean, how did that get started? It would take minimally over 200 proteins all composed of a specific sequence of amino acids There are 20 amino acids in all (each of which is a quite specific molecule), and we want just the right sequence. Somehow they got together inside a cell membrane (a phospholipid bilayer with protein channels) and aligned themselves with the proper DNA codes – no problem setting up a code much more intricate than anything Bill Gates has come out with (by his own admission). Chances are… well, chances are slim. One in a million? Not hardly.

Try 1 in 10 followed by about 400 more zeroes. Salvo Magazine has an ad on their web page for the “Universal Lottery.” Check it out: http://www.salvomag.com/new/ads/UniversalLottery.html

After you check it, you may want to invest in some Asteroid Insurance I have for sale. Because 1 in 1,000,000 is just math lingo for “bound to happen.”

A good book on this is RC Sproul’s “Not a Chance.” (If you can afford it after you pay my insurance premiums).