There is a vanishingly small yet finite probability that a collection of
particles will suddenly appear in front of your keyboard in the form of
a 16oz solid gold brick, just as you finish reading this sentence. No?
Oh, well. Sorry if I got you excited. I /did/ say the chances were
vanishingly small. As a matter of fact, for a 50-50 chance of something like
that happening, you would have to wait many millions-of-billions-of-trillions
of times the current age of the universe. If you wait "forever", the chance
becomes 100%.
Similarly, there is an even more vanishingly small chance that, if the
gravitational profile of the universe precludes contraction and continues
to expand, that sometime in the distant future, all matter in the universe
will spontaneously reassemble close enough together that it will, from
then on, proceed to contract. It may take a googolplex-raised-to-the-power
of-a-googolplex years, but that's still /infinitely/ shorter than forever.
Hmmm... I just stole a glance at the subject line in the header:
"Re: virus: religion"
Boy, are we off topic! Oh, well. Sue me.
Dan