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The Odds of You
Many people think they are here by accident. I challenge those who think that to keep reading and do some research; math says otherwise.
You are unique. There is no one else on the planet who is exactly like you. Even identical twins, who technically have the same genetic code, have different fingerprints and slightly different personalities. And unless you are an identical twin, your DNA is unlike any other person’s. You are different from any other person who is living, has lived in the past, or will live in the future. And if a single letter in your genetic code were different, you would be a different person.
A healthy woman’s ovaries have roughly 400,000 eggs. Each has a different genetic code. Likewise, a healthy man will produce, in his lifetime, between 40 million and 1.8 billion sperm cells. Again, each is different, and has a different genetic code. So the odds of your parents producing you, assuming they both have a healthy reproductive system, would be, at best, 1 in 16,000,000,000,000, or 1 in 16 trillion.
In addition, there were 7.125 billion people in the world as of 2013; the number has grown by now. Taking that number, the odds of your parents having a child—not you, but any child—is 1 in 50,765,625,000,000,000,000, or 1 in roughly 50 quintillion (1 quintillion=1x10^18). Now, the odds of that particular man and woman having YOU are roughly 1 in 800 nonillion, or 1 in 800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 nonillion=1x10^30).
This infinitesimal number isn’t even taking into account the fact that you were born at the time you were; there were how many thousands of years you could have been born into? It doesn’t take into account the odds of your parents being born, or their parents before them. They were just as unlikely as you are. Also, your surroundings determine who you are. What are the odds of your being raised the way you were, in the place you were, with your exact genetic code? What are the odds of you being you? Next to impossible, that’s what they are.
And people affect you, as well. What are the odds of you living and interacting with the people you interact with? Not just one of them; all of them. They are just as unlikely as you, but on top of that, what are the odds that you are all together, in this particular time and place in the entire universe in Earth’s entire history, with your particular background?
David says in Psalm 139: 13-14, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” In the song “Here for a Reason,” by Ashes Remain, the lyrics say,
"Every breath that you take has meaning
You are here for a reason”
In another, “Made,” by Hawk Nelson,
"You're beautiful, wonderful
Perfectly made, perfectly made
You're meant to be what you see
You're not a mistake, not a mistake
Brighter than stars that shine
You light up the Maker's eyes
And you'd believe if you could see
The smile on His face
The moment you were made”
A line from VeggieTales says it the best: “God made you special, and he loves you very much.”
The odds are against you. So why are you here? Winning the lottery looks like a surefire deal compared to you. Unless, of course, there’s a third party who stepped in to make sure you turned out the way you did.
Still think you’re an accident?
Sources:
http://www.drstandley.com/bodysystems_femalerepro.shtml
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/natural-history/sperm-counts
World Bank
http://math.about.com/od/glossaryofterms/a/zeros.htm
Holy Bible, NIV
Ashes Remain, “Here For a Reason,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb9Y_3O2tlQ
Hawk Nelson, “Made,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGwd8ru2TC8
VeggieTales, Big Idea Productions
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Romans 1:16: I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.