Defying the Odds or Statiscally Insignificant

I was watching "The Meaning of Life" (Monty Python) the other day and it made inspired me to write this topic. Specifically, the "Galaxy Song" (embedded below).



This song starts by showing the vastness of the universe and concludes with the line:

"So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth..."

This got me to thinking about our place in the universe. One can dismiss the significance of one human being in a universe as large as ours, and effectively deem our individual lives as statistically insignificant. One could even argue that our collective lives (the entire human race) are also statistically insignificant when compared to the universe. From a stripped down numbers perspective, one can hardly argue against this.

The flip side of all of this is contained in the last line quoted above. One cannot imagine the number of atoms that exist throughout the universe. Somehow, these atoms had to float around for billions of years and through the force of gravity, eventually ended up on this rock that we like to call Earth. Through millions/billions of biochemical reactions, these atoms eventually formed into life, and eventually into humans. Humans that mated. Even in the act of intercourse, the likelihood that specifically YOU would be born is very low. Out of the tens of millions of sperm cells in a single ejaculation, you somehow found your way to that egg and survived. You defied incalculable odds to be here.

Now, taking both sides of the argument into account, what can we conclude? Are we statistically insignificant in the vastness of space? Or are we of critical importance, defying the odds to merely exist?


Song: The Galaxy Song
Written by: Eric Idle
From the Film: The Meaning of Life (1983)

Originally posted by kawz1
Now, taking both sides of the argument into account, what can we conclude? Are we statistically insignificant in the vastness of space? Or are we of critical importance, defying the odds to merely exist?

Both could be true and or false. It is up to the individual to decide which perspective to filter their information through. For some, just being born is a miracle, then after wards they adopt a perspective that renders them air thieves, in other words... A burden on society.

Some they are born and it's no surprise, as children they are hellions. Yet through their experiences their perspective supports an ideal that is nurturing to society. Or any which way.

The way I understand it... atoms are potential and when they combine that potential is multiplied. This potential can go any which way. It's up to rest of us and the individual to give that conglomerate of atoms a meaning.

Great topic, and one I have thought about at length.

I think answer must lie in predetermination. Statistical odds are a way of perceiving a future that is totally hidden from us. Yet perhaps the future is as immutable as the past. In that case, you exist EXACTLY BECAUSE there was no other possibility.

What I mean is this: the chances of you existing now are 100% -- you exist and there is no question about it.

You exist only when you are consciously aware of yourself - when your alive.
When your dead, your not in existence or aware of yourself since you are in an eternal nothingness of no being.


I don't believe in the scenario I stated above, but I just thought it would be depressing if you lived for one life and then cease to exist (trying to imagine what you were before you were born, difficult, isn't it?).