What Are The Odds?

How many planets would we need to look at before we found life? One out of a hundred? One out of a thousand? A million? I like one out a thousand, but don't read on until you've picked a number.

Our galaxy (the Milky Way) contains 200 billion stars, and the average star looks like our sun. Any star has at least a 5% chance of having planets. So if you chose one in a million you could expect to see 10,000 planets.



Look at the picture above taken by the Hubble telescope. It is the deepest optical sky image ever taken. How many galaxies do you see in this picture? In addition to those, each of the circles indicates an additional galaxy containing billions of stars. That many galaxies exist in a section of sky smaller than if you were to look out through the tube of a hypodermic needle. Imagine how many photographs like this would need to be taken to capture the entire sky. Now how many planets with life would there be?

But wait, the light from those galaxies took up to two billion years to get to us. Some planets had life back then, some planets have life now, and some have had life come and go. An untold number of instances of life throughout the ages.

Billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars. Millions of civilizations over a billion years of time. All those beings seeking God in some way. And I just happen to be born on the planet where Christ was sent to die (a mere two thousand years ago), happened to pick the right faith, and joined a church that is correctly following God's heart. How fortunate I am.

What are the odds?

What made me laugh today...

A murder has been committed. Police are called to an apartment and find a man standing, holding a five-iron in his hands, staring at the lifeless body of a woman on the ground. The detective asks, "Sir, is that your wife?" "Yes." "Did you hit her with that golf club?" "Yes. Yes, I did," the man answers. He stifles a sob, drops the club, and puts his hands on his head. "How many times did you hit her?" "I don't know," said the man, "Five, six. Put me down for a five."