It is said that the odds of you or I existing are 400 trillion to 1. But I think they are even much more remote than that. With all of the exact events that had to have occurred since the beginning of our Universe, the chances that you or I should exist at all are pretty close to absolute zero. Another estimate, based upon a scientific theorem, places the odds at 1 in 10 to the ^2,685,000.

In order for us to exist, a great many unlikely events needed to unfold in exactly the way that they did. The exact sperm cell and egg cell needed to meet to create us with the DNA sequence that encoded each of us, to bring us into existence; a one-in-250 million chance for a sperm cell alone. That needed to happen each time in an unbroken string for millions of generations of our ancestors, going back to well before they were human beings or even hominids of any type. Other unlikely events needed to occur as well: life needed to take hold on Earth, Earth needed to form as a habitable planet with the right ingredients for life out of the ashes of previously dead stars, the laws of physics needed to be such that they permitted life, and the Universe itself must have unfolded in such a way as to make all of this possible. Yet, it all happened. Like a miracle.

But I do not believe in miracles, I believe in causality. Cause and effect. Every single one of the trillions and trillions of effects that occurred to make our individual existence possible had a cause. Every single cause, known and unknown has an explanation, except the very first one (and possibly the ones before that).

It is not a miracle that we exist, but it is about as close as you could get. Whether you believe there is a religious cause or scientific one (or both or neither), the fact is, we exist, in this time, in this place. It is ours to embrace and make full.

After all, we could have been a sausage, skewered on the fork of eternity (or nothing at all).

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