Abstract
The book, A Case against Accident and Self-Organization by Dean L. Overman, has been capably reviewed by Charles E. Chaffey in the March 1999 issue of PSCF. Perhaps the greatest weakness of the book is to claim mathematical proofs in ways that are not consistent with the nature of mathematics itself. The author puts forth a quite reasonable argument: The probability that just chance occurrences led to the universe as it is, and in particular to life itself, is very low. But he overstates what he has shown by insisting on calling any probability less than 10-50 a mathematical impossibility (even probability 0 is not the same as mathematical impossibility). It appears that the author wants the authority of mathematical proof, but by insisting on this line of argument, he weakens his case, certainly for the professional mathematician.