The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Miraculous You

Posted on | August 15, 2015 | 32 Comments

If you are ever discouraged by failure or the disadvantages you face in life, consider what the odds were against you ever existing:

Scientists calculated the probability of your existing as you, today, at about one in 400 trillion . . .  Some factors taken to reach this figure include the chances of your biological parents meeting and mating, probability of fertilization, and the survival rate of a fertilized egg.

Your mere existence is in some sense miraculous, and the fact that you are alive today and able to read this is testimony to your ability to overcome enormous odds. You are a survivor, and all your ancesters were survivors, too, or otherwise you wouldn’t even be alive today. Not only do you exist, but you are literate and have access to the amazing technology of the Internet, which empowers you in ways that your ancestors never could have imagined. You have enormous opportunities, and there is no reason to despair. No matter what disappointments you may experience in life, never quit. Never surrender. Never lose hope.

You’re already a winner. Science proves it.





 

Category: Science

Comments

32 Responses to “Miraculous You”

  1. Delaney Coffer
    August 15th, 2015 @ 4:18 pm

    Og Mandino concurs.

  2. reliapundit
    August 15th, 2015 @ 4:41 pm

    And there is no other place in the universe with life at all as far as we can tell. Making life itself a miracle. Human life is a miracle of miracles.

  3. Bob Belvedere
    August 15th, 2015 @ 5:27 pm

    Amen, Breeze.

  4. Prime Director
    August 15th, 2015 @ 5:50 pm

    Aho

  5. GAHCindy
    August 15th, 2015 @ 5:53 pm

    Aww, shucks.

  6. Quartermaster
    August 15th, 2015 @ 6:17 pm

    “No matter what disappointments you may experience in life, never quit. Never surrender. Never lose hope.”

    Or, as one wag put it, “Never give up your dreams. Keep sleeping.”

  7. Eastwood Ravine
    August 15th, 2015 @ 9:21 pm

    To quote Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way!”

  8. Dianna Deeley
    August 15th, 2015 @ 9:34 pm

    Excellently said!

  9. Finrod Felagund
    August 15th, 2015 @ 10:16 pm

    One song in my favorites list has the lyrics

    “When you feel life ain’t worth living, you’ve got to take a look away, look up way to the sky / And when your deepest thoughts are broken, keep on dreaming boy ’cause when you stop dreaming it’s time to die”

  10. concern00
    August 16th, 2015 @ 2:57 am

    A positive post, thanks. Amen indeed.

  11. Adjoran
    August 16th, 2015 @ 4:23 am

    I thought we weren’t supposed to bring up his driving record?

  12. Adjoran
    August 16th, 2015 @ 4:29 am

    Not only are you spot on, but this entirely positive post demonstrates your versatility.

    Good to arise from the fevered swamp of feminist delusion and desecration you have been recording for posterity – a practical use for anthropology, who knew? – and recall the warmth of sunshine on your face, It is rare enough any of us takes the time to appreciate the simple but fantastic miracle that is life.

  13. concern00
    August 16th, 2015 @ 4:34 am

    It is nice to turn up here and not have to swim through the sewage of our broken culture for a change. Christians (and allies!) need to exhort one another now and then.

  14. Dana
    August 16th, 2015 @ 7:02 am

    It’s more than just your parents meeting and mating; it’s the odds that they would have mated at the particular time that you were conceived.

  15. Isa
    August 16th, 2015 @ 7:30 am

    shared this one on Facebook. hope you don’t mind.

  16. RS
    August 16th, 2015 @ 8:01 am

    So, what you’re saying is there’s really no need to go out and buy those Lotto tickets, because I’ve used up all my luck already.

    : )

  17. RS
    August 16th, 2015 @ 8:10 am

    True, but certain things/events do narrow the odds for some people: Moving into the new house; the Austrian ski vacation when the lifts are down for repair; checking out the cab-over rental camper in the driveway before a long trip to Yellowstone–that sort of thing.

    Or, so I’ve heard.

  18. NikFromNYC
    August 16th, 2015 @ 10:06 am

    But “you” would still be “you” no matter who your parents were. The rest of the mentioned factors are all pretty good odds since biology works so well at its prime directive.

  19. The original Mr. X
    August 16th, 2015 @ 10:26 am

    Even then, it had to be one out of however many millions of sperm cells that fertilised the egg…

  20. WarEagle82
    August 16th, 2015 @ 10:50 am

    Liberty is never more than a generation from extinction

    In the later part of the first half of the 20th century, it appeared that democracy had waned and that the forces of tyranny were waxing.

    A reluctant America joined the fight and eventually led the way to victory and democracy was saved. At least for the time.

    80 years later, the American central government may in fact be one of the greater threats to liberty.

    I wonder whether we will triumph and secure liberty for the next generation? It often looks darkest before dawn. Of course, it probably looks pretty dark as you cross the “event horizon” of a black hole too.

  21. Burn_the_Witch
    August 16th, 2015 @ 11:43 am

    Also mind-mind boggling is the number of decisions/actions by your ancestors that led to you. Go back 9 generations and you’re talking about the decisions/actions of over a thousand direct ancestors.

    I don’t even know how you’d calculate the odds on something like that.

  22. RS
    August 16th, 2015 @ 12:27 pm

    It occurs to me that how one views the subject of this post says a lot about where one falls on the political spectrum. The regulars here see the calculations and conclude that each human is unique; that s/he has been blessed with something special and has, therefore, a purpose in existence and a dignity which flows from that. Of course, that is the Biblical view, as well.

    Others however will see these facts and say, “Ah ha! We are merely the end result of an infinite series of coin flips. We are nothing and mean nothing and neither does anyone else.” And thus, they seek meaning in all manner of destructive things, including but not limited to, the subjugation of the individual in favor of some nebulous idea of a collective utopia.

  23. M. Thompson
    August 16th, 2015 @ 2:01 pm

    He’s innocent until prooven guilty.

  24. Matthew W
    August 16th, 2015 @ 2:27 pm

    My wife had a miscarriage the year before my daughter was born. If we had had that child, I would have been my child and I would love it just the same as my daughter, but it would NOT have been her, it would have been an entirely different person.
    Stuff like that boogles my mind.

  25. Jason Lee
    August 16th, 2015 @ 3:21 pm

    The universe itself is highly improbable.

  26. Eastwood Ravine
    August 16th, 2015 @ 4:02 pm

    Not to mention ones belief of evolution vs creationism. And how old the world is. You can argue for both, with the physical outcome governed by biology and math, whereas our souls are authored by God.

  27. Daniel Freeman
    August 16th, 2015 @ 8:52 pm

    Semi-OT: SJWs are scared of their own nerds, and maybe they should be. I’m not normally one to even read the progressive webmag Vox (not to be confused with the diametrically-opposed Vox Day), let alone link to it, but I stumbled on this and… damn.

    Put another way: The number of future humans who will never exist if humans go extinct is so great that reducing the risk of extinction by 0.00000000000000001 percent can be expected to save 100 billion more lives than, say, preventing the genocide of 1 billion people. That argues, in the judgment of Bostrom and others, for prioritizing efforts to prevent human extinction above other endeavors. This is what X-risk obsessives mean when they claim ending world poverty would be a “rounding error.”

  28. Daniel Freeman
    August 17th, 2015 @ 1:19 am

    To be clear, it’s only semi-OT not only because of the large numbers, but also because they don’t seem at all concerned with the future lives snuffed out by abortion.

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  30. Gunga
    August 17th, 2015 @ 9:46 am

    …and then the singer died…

  31. Finrod Felagund
    August 17th, 2015 @ 2:15 pm

    Actually he did die a couple years afterwards during the tour for the subsequent album. 🙁

    The lyrics from that particular song continue as follows:

    “And as we all play parts of tomorrow, some ways we’ll work and other ways we’ll play / But I know we can’t all stay here forever, so I’ll write my words on the face of today– and then they’ll paint it”

    The bolded lyrics there are now on his tombstone.

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    […] Miraculous You […]