November 11-18, 2025

Sir Fred Hoyle was unusual

gave chance too small a chance

where chance is all the rage

that he also claimed atheism

makes his unusualness rare

Sir Fred Hoyle was a realist

having lost his hope in chance

he stood instead on intelligence

that he also claimed atheism

makes his realism rare

Sir Fred Hoyle could say:

“If one proceeds directly and straightforwardly in this matter, without being deflected by a fear of incurring the wrath of scientific opinion, one arrives at the conclusion that biomaterials with their amazing measure of order must be the outcome of intelligent design. No other possibility I have been able to think of”

and he could also say:

“The notion that not only the biopolymer but the operating program of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.”

and he could say in conclusion:

“The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one to a number with 40,000 naughts after it ... It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet nor any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence.”

Hoyle knew chance had too little hope

could not ensure everything would be

and knowing that everything really is

he fell instead on purpose and design

as the guide, if not as The Initiator

yet even a small hope is too great

though his unusual un-orthodoxy

reduces chance to almost zero

yet any chance is far too hopeful

even Hoyle’s chance of 1 in 1040,000

is infinitely more than must be real

Sir Fred Hoyle thought a chance too small

yet a chance too small is far too large

for chance is simply non-existent