[MD] Chance

[craigerb at comcast.net]

[Ham]
> My search for the 'ex nihilo' principle in logic books has so far proved 
> disappointing,

Not at all.  You should be disappointed only if you DID FIND the 'ex nihilo'
principle ("Nothing comes from nothing") in a logic book.  That's not the
kind of thing logic books are informative about.  Even a science book won't
help you.  A science book can sometimes tell you that X came from Y
(e.g., Saturn's rings came from cosmic dust), but if science doesn't know
where X came from, then it doesn't always know whether it came from
something rather than nothing. 
"Nothing comes from nothing" is a METAPHYSICAL rule that says
"Keep looking", but it can't guarantee there's anything to find.
Craig