(April 1, 2016 at 3:54 pm)robvalue Wrote: The probability someone won the lottery is like one in several millions. There's no way that could have happened, it's too unlikely. So it must have been designed to happen that way.
That's a common misunderstanding. The chance that someone wins the lottery is 100%. The chance that one specific person would win the lottery is low. An analogy to the protein example would be this. If you bought a lottery ticket, and the lottery people decided that only if they drew your ticket, they would pay. If they drew anyone else's ticket, they would keep the money for themselves. Suddenly it isn't so likely that someone will win the lottery.
In the analogy you are analogous to the functional protein, while everyone else who bought a ticket is analogous to a functionless protein. It is unlikely that you will win the lottery just as it is unlikely that the functional protein will form.
Furthermore, there is a HUUUUGE difference between one in several million (5 x 10^6) and the number I just calculated one in (7.89 x 10^131). It is difficult to stress how large of a difference this is. There have only been like some 10^17 seconds since the beginning of the universe.
