Quote from 2cents:
sounds about as useful as a cite from jem...
how improbable really? where have you seen that life is not flourishing over a couple quadrillions universes out there?
let my inner zizzzo speak up and ask: what about entanglement to take another example? how "improbable" would you say it is and what would that mean?
The existence of metauniverses is unproven at this time. There are two theories on how they may be created: string theory; the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
String theory provides 10^500 possible universes in which to find life. Each universe could have a different cosmological constant, and produce the same or different outcomes from our own.
The many worlds interpretation provides an infinity of alternate futures, each stemming from wave function collapses. It also makes the notion of randomness irrelevant, because in this interpretation, anything that can possibly happen, actually does happen, in at least one universe.
But, just like with the creator, there's no physical evidence to prove the above-described theories, at this time. So, while we can speculate about what may be true, what we know is true is that we live in this universe and that life exists.
The formation of life may be the product of some sort of clay and polypeptide interaction, or the result of wave bubbles breaking on some ancient shore, but we have yet to duplicate the effort which nature has apparently accomplished: a simple self-replicating molecule.
There is one scientific theory which does explain this event entirely: random chance. A simple self replicating molecule could have been assembled by accident. No matter how improbable that event seems, it is nevertheless within the sphere of physical possibility, therefore it cannot be absolutely dismissed.
And, as the fossil and genetic physical evidence suggests that all life is the product of common descent, this supports the notion of a pure accident.
The alternative: god did it, is, not within the realm of physical probability.
If God is an extra-universal actor, then He is no more scientifically provable (at this time), than are the string theory/many worlds meta universes. All three of these theories are still philosophy.
If God is a part of this universe, then the probability of the spontaneous creation of an organism of limitless power is infinitely more unlikely than is the random chance of abiogenesis. The point being that when you assign limitless possibilities to a selection set, you render all probabilities of the existence of God infinitely improbable.
Returning to the basket of green and red apples, what is the probability of pulling a green apple from a basket filled with an infinity of red apples:
Zero. Or, more precisely, 1/infinity -> 0.
Which doesn't mean that the green apple isn't in the basket. It does mean that there is no scientific method of assigning a probability to God's existence, and that no matter how improbable our self replicating molecule may be, it is infinitely more probable than the alternative of God.
