To understand what follows, remember that # A is shorthand for the number of A per one B.
B
Also know that this is an example of the power of the technique called “dimensional analysis” for confidently figuring complex outcomes.
Finally, know that the number of sperm per day, primary oocytes per month, etc., are based upon well-established numbers available in standard college texts. I used these numbers and taught them in two college courses, Human Anatomy and Physiology and Environmental Biology.
Number of sperm generated by a male over his lifetime (per generation) with the potential to make a human:
1.25 X 108 sperm X 3.65 x 102days Xx 50 years x= 2.3 X 1012 sperm
day year sperm production lifetime
per lifetime
Number of ova (primary, not primordial oocytes) ovulated by a female over her lifetime (per generation) with a potential to make a human:
1 primary oocyte X 12 months Xx 40 years x= 480 ova
month year ova production lifetime
per lifetime
The probability of you:
1 1 1 1
2.3 X 1012 sperm 1.5 X 109 480 ova 1.5 X 109 = 2.5 X 1033 unions of sperm & ova
lifetime X males* X lifetime X females* that could have occurred in world
male world female world over the potential time of your
conception (i.e., per generation)
*these were the number of reproductively active males and females in world at the time of your conception. Since any two of them theoretically could have been your parents and since you could have been conceived at any time over their active reproductive lifetime (per generation), this is one way to compute this number. 1.5 X 109 is a SWAG. The figures on the number of sperm and ova per lifetime are reliable.
This means you are one out two and one half thousand quadrillion, quadrillion!! But since we did do some guessing, let's round that number down to one thousand quadrillion, quadrillion. To say you (or anyone else, including recently-conceived humans) are unique is one of the world’s biggest understatements!
So if anyone is questioning his/her uniqueness or importance, remind him/her of the above fact. Then direct him/her to the following:
Psalm 139:13 tells us, “For you [God] created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Jeremiah 1:5 tells us, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew[a] you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
I believe this knitting begins with His personally selecting the sperm and ovum that made us, out of the one thousand quadrillion, quadrillion that He could have chosen. I believe it continues throughout our in utero development following thoroughly-reasoned instructions, imparted over hundreds of millions of years of evolution. I believe it culminates in the miracle of our birth!
Life begins at conception! Any event with a probability of one out of one thousand quadrillion, quadrillion is not to be trifled with!
Return to Mentiscopia (the front page).