Anyway, with some googling, I found this: http://creationsafaris.com/epoi_c06.htm
Scroll down to 114 and you get the quote:

A single protein molecule would not be expected to happen by chance more often than once in 10^262 years on the average, and the probability that one protein might occur by random action during the entire history of the earth is less than 1 in 10^252.
For a minimum set of the required 239 protein molecules for the smallest theoretical life, the probability is 1 in 10^119879. It would take 10^119841 years on the average to get a set of such proteins. That is 10^119831 times the assumed age of the earth and is a figure with 119,831 zeroes, enough to fill sixty pages of a book this size.

I haven’t read the whole thing, so I don’t know what sort of assumptions Dr. James Coppedge is making. I just thought people might like to know where these guys get their numbers.

1st the bones, yeah, I can take 206 different balls and reorganize them in 206! ways. Wow, bones are actually a bit poor example, as they are not, you know, interchangeable. It kind of lessens the wonder. “The skull could have just as easily been the pelvis! It must have been designed.” Yeah, right. The exclamation mark, btw., is factorial, something we here in Finland learn in high school.

What do you mean by 1.0e206?
1,0 * e * 206,0 = 559,97
1,0^206 = 1,0
1,0 * e^206 = 2,92 * 10^89
1,0 * 10^206 = 10^206

None of them are 206!.

40th power is impossible? Damn. I did not know that. Good thing no one has tried it yet, it is not good to do impossible things.

You have a really weird understanding of simple exponentiation.
10^5 = 10 * 10 * 10 * 10 * 10 = 100 000,
NOT 10^(2^1)+(10^(2^2))+(10^(2^4)) etc. or whatever you were explaining.
You sir, would not have succeeded in a basic math test in Finnish High School.

And yes, 10^262 is a huge number, but still it is just 1 + 262 zeroes. If you were referring to the 10^(10^262), well then, try to learn to refer. That’s all.

Good day to all,

And by the way, so far as mathematicians are concerned, anything over the 40th power is considered impossible.

Simple Z is right,
Guys look at the order of Growth! It is exponential, not n! This is huge #!
When the # is said to be ten to the two hundred and sixty second power, that
means that each time you will multiply 10’s, not add them. The order of growth is exponential, which is the second largest order of growth in our universe. The next one is only n-factorial.
So, according to science, first time you will have 2 zeros(10*10), second time you have 4 zeros(100*100), third time — 16 zeroes(10000*10000), and so on till 262th power with so many zeroes that you can’t even imagine.

If you don’t believe me, Just to take your Ti-83 calculator and put in 10 to the 262 power. The memory in the calculator is lacking the capacity to calculate and display that it gives an error. Even your computer will display the number in the scientific notation. The number is very huge. Don’t be fooled.

Science is on God’s side, don’t be deceived, my dear brothers.

10^(10^262) has 10^262 zeros which is a greater sum than the number of particles in the entire universe

For a better articulated Intelligent design argument for the 10^262 idea, see this link. Of course, the assumptions used to come up with these numbers are contested in the scientific community. They also completely ignore the idea of “parallel processing”. If billions of events are simultaneously happening over a long time, the odds are a lot better. There also may be certain yet discovered “self-organizing” tendencies of nature (for thermodynamic reasons) that are also in play that can greatly increase the probabilities of the “right” proteins forming. It is not necessary to “jump to conclusions” to say a supernatural deity is behind it all. This scientific field is still young.

In any case it’s total nonsense with no relevance to the way evolution actually works, as explained here and here and, at greater length, here.

Polly’s explanation (the consensus) is what I’ve always thought, too. So, what is the problem with Rafi’s explanation? Is it the “now, take THAT number and raise it to the 10: 10000000000^10″ part that is wrong? Why compound the 10s like that? Maybe my math skills are “shitty”; help me understand.

Google “exponent calculator” and use the first link to get this answer: 1.0000000000000002e+262. Is that the same as what Polly said or what Rafi said?