Dean L. Overman On Universe Not Accidental

Dean L. Overman,

A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization (Maryland:

Rowman & Littlefield; 2001), pp. 65, 66.

[American spellings retained.]

The case against chance or accident is compelling.

Living matter at the simplest level is exceedingly intricate.

Discoveries in molecular biology disclose a world of staggering complexity.

Even a single celled bacterium is comprised of ten million million atoms and an enormous amount of instructions or information content...

For the proponents of accident another daunting obstacle is the explanation of the incredible increase of complexity that one finds in the human brain.

The vast complexity of a single cell pales in comparison to the complexity of the human brain which consists of more than ten thousand million nerve cells with each cell containing ten thousand to one hundred thousand fibers connecting the brain cells so that the total connections among brain cells total a thousand million million or 10 to the power of 15.

This is an incredibly large number, especially when one considers that each brain fiber provides a special function in the brain’s communication system.

To put the number in perspective these connections represent over 100 times the number of connections in the total network of communications on the planet earth! The probability of the assembly of such a system even by intelligent human beings is exceedingly small. The argument that such an assembly was performed by accident stretches credulity.

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