One of the strongest evidences for special creation is the mathematical improbability that the highly complex systems in the universe could have arisen by chance. Random processes generate disorder rather thatn order, and confusion instead of "information."
Matematical probabilities of chance occurrences can be calculated precisely. For example, the chance of flipping a coin with heads up twice in a row is 1 in 4 (1 in 2 x 2). The coin could land head, tail or two tails or tail, head, or two heads. The probability of flipping ten heads in a row is 1 in 1028 (or 1 in 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2 which can be expressed as 1 in 2 to the 10th power). Thus, if you gambled and paid $5.00 for a chance to win $1000.00 if you could flip 10 heads in sequence, you would almost certainly lose.
The mathematics for calculation the probability of arranging a fixed number of items in order is somewhat defferent. Thus the possibility of arranging three flash cards in a predetermined sequence is 1 in 6 (3x2x1 or 3!) because the chance of getting the first card correct is 1 in 3, then the chance of getting the second card correct is 1 in 2. The last card is automatically correct if the first two are correct. The chance of arranging ten flash cards in a predetermined order is 1 in 3,628,800 (1 in 10!) while the chance of arranging 100 flash cards in order is 1 in 10 to the 158th power (1 in 100!). Disorder is temendously more probable than any kind of ordered system. The improbability of an ordered sequence increases as the number of components in the system increases.
A protein molecule is far more complex than arranging 100 flash cards in order. It has been estimated that the mathematical probability of the atoms of the simplest replicating protein molecule coming together in order by chance is 1 in 10 to the 450th power. Astrophysicists estimate that there are no more that 10 to the 80th power infinitesimal particles in the universe and that the age of the universe is no greater than 10 to the 18th power seconds (30 billion years). If each particle can participate in a thousand billion (10 to the 12th power) different events every second, then the greastest number of events that could happen in all the universe throughout its entire history is 10 to the 80th x 10 to the 18th x10 to the 12th or 10 to the 110 power. Any event with a probabliliy of less than one chance in 10 to the 110 power therefore cannot occur. Thus the probability of life occuring by chance is zero.
A living cell is even far more complicated than the simplest replicating protein molecule. The chance of a simgle living cell speontaneously forming is 1 in 10 to the 40,000th power. It is interesting to note the illustrations that various authors haveused to illustrate the probability of by time and chance.
1. Shaking for 1 billion years a gigantic box filled with wire, metal, plastic, etc., and forming a computer.
2. A tornado passing through a junkyard and forming a Boeing 747.
3. 10 to the 50th power blind men simultaneously solving scrambled Rubic cubes.
4. An explosion in a print shop producing an unabridged dictionary.
Whenever one sees any real, ordered complexity in nature, particularly as found in living systems, he can be sure that this complexity was designed and did not occur by chance. Without a living God to create life, the laws of probability and complexity prove beyond doubt that life could never come into existence at all.