In a Handbasket, Mom

This morning I got an email today from my Mom. I may have mentioned before that she's VERY Catholic, and she's always sending me little prayers and such.

I don't really mind. She's not militant about it, and I appreciate the thought regardless of my own religious views. Plus, on the off chance that I'm wrong about EVERYTHING (entirely possible), she could be my PR rep for the deity in the clouds.

So she sent me a novena (for those non-Caths out there, it's a prayer said for nine days to ask for special graces) via email.

Here it is...

You were chosen to receive this novena.
The moment you receive it, say:
Hail Mary full of grace,

...(etc, etc)

but deliver us
from evil. Amen
.GOD WANTED ME TO TELL YOU, It shall be well with you
this coming year.
No matter how much your enemies try this year, they
will not succeed.
You have been destined to make it and you shall surely
achieve all your goals this year.
For the year 2008, all your agonies will be diverted
and victory and prosperity will be incoming in
abundance. Today God has
confirmed the end of your sufferings, sorrows and
pain because HE that
sits on the throne has remembered you. He has taken
away the hardships
and given you JOY. He will never let you down.
I knocked at heaven's door this morning, God asked
me...My child! What can I do for you? And I said,
"Father, please protect and bless the person reading
this message... "
This is a Novena from Mother Theresa that started in1952.
It has never been broken. Within 48 hours send 20
copies or as many as you can - God does know if you
don't have 20 people to send it to.
It's the effort and intent that
counts to family and friends.
This is a powerful Novena. Couldn't hurt. Can only
help. Please do not break it...

Chain emails bug me a little. Especially one that's been around for [snicker] 50+ years.

"GOD WANTED ME TO TELL YOU, It shall be well with you this coming year."
Statements like this always bug me. My issue is best described in a convo with Jesus by our friends over at Russell's Teapot...

"A) You, being omniscient, apparently know I need help. B) you, being omnipotent, actively choose not to provide said help to me C) then you, inexplicably, tell Sally that she needs to pray - to you - in order for you to help me which results in D) Sally imploring you to help me with the issue that E) you already knew I needed help with in the first place."

Yeah, makes sense.

Anyway, let's do the math...
"This is a Novena from Mother Theresa that started in1952.
It has never been broken. Within 48 hours send 20
copies..."

Ok, let's assume that this started on December 31, 1952.
That gives us 20,204 days to today.

That gives us 10,102 48-hour time units, assuming that each person would wait until the absolute last second to send the message.

Starting with Mother Teresa sending that first email (just pretend, okay?) in 1952, that would give us 6.12998 x 10^236 (e.g. 20^182) people in that first year alone.
To put that into perspective, the current estimate of the number of atoms in our known universe (encompassing 46 billion light years) is 10^80.

Now understandably, not each person would forward the message. I'd say 10% is a reasonable approximation, so let's say 2 people forward it. That would be 6.12998 x 10^54 (e.g. 2^182) people in 1953. To put it in real numbers, that's 6,129,982,163,463,556,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 people.
(The population of the earth in 1950 was 2,521,000,000.)

According to the Population Reference Bureau, there have been an estimated 106,456,367,669 humans born to date since 50,000 BC.

I couldn't find any calculators that could handle the sheer numbers of calculating 2^10,012

I'm going to hell.