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In the United States, thousands of people buy lottery tickets each week, spending billions of dollars each year. Yet they keep losing. That’s because the odds are against them. The odds of winning a major lottery are approximately 1 in 300 million.1
When the odds are against one thing, they are actually in favor of the opposite. The odds of losing the lottery are something like 299,999,999 in 300 million.
Let me repeat that, the greater the odds are against one thing, the greater the odds are in favor of its opposite.
Now, let’s take a look at some really big numbers. If you think that the odds of winning the lottery are bad, think about the odds of winning it two days in a row! This multiplies the odds. The chance of winning a major lottery two days in a row is 1 in 90 quadrillion — that’s 16 zeros after the 9. Not very likely to happen.
So what about evolution? What are the odds of the first single-celled organism evolving from non-living chemicals? Dr. Randy Wysong, in his book The Creation-Evolution Controversy, describes the “total probability of forming the proteins and DNA for the smallest self-replicating entity given astronomically large quantities of reagents and time.” The odds he reports are ridiculously bad! 1 chance in 1 followed by 167,626 zeros.2
Why should you believe God created the world? The odds make it a sure thing!
1Kymberly Amadeo, “What Are the Odds of Winning the Lottery?” The Balance, November 4, 2020, https://www.thebalance.com/what-are-the-odds-of-winning-the-lottery-3306232
2Randy L. Wysong, The Creation-Evolution Controversy (Midland, MI: Inquiry Press, 1976), 118
Bumper music “Landing Place” performed by Mark July, used under license from Shutterstock.