View Single Post
Old 3rd March 2012, 07:31 PM   #26
Ziggurat
Penultimate Amazing
 
Ziggurat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 56,422
Originally Posted by ynot View Post
Essentially I’m asking if there is some point at which odds become so unlikely they aren’t worthy of serious consideration to be applied to the possibility of actual events.
There is no objective answer to that. One can calculate the odds, one can calculate the frequency of events, etc, etc. But whether or not it's worth considering, well, that's up to you. I am fine ignoring a 1 in 1000 chance of dropping an egg when I take it out of the refrigerator, but if there was a 1 in 1000 chance that I would die in a car crash on my way to work, that would worry me.
__________________
"As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose -- that it may violate property instead of protecting it -- then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant, and all-absorbing. There will be fighting at the door of the Legislative Palace, and the struggle within will be no less furious." - Bastiat, The Law
Ziggurat is offline   Quote this post in a PM   Nominate this post for this month's language award Copy a direct link to this post Reply With Quote Back to Top