Kauffman was also troubled by people's tacit assumption that detail was everything. The biomolecular details were obviously important, he knew. But if the genome really had to be organized and fine-tuned to exquisite perfection before it could work at all, then how could it have arisen through the random trial and error of evolution? That would be like shuffling an honest deck of cards and then dealing yourself a bridge hand of thirteen spades: possible, but not very likely. "It just didn't feel right," he says. "You don't want to ask that much of either God or selection.
