Odd, isn't it? Every week many of us buy a lottery ticket in the hope of winning a few million pounds.

We repeat the cleverly conceived and insidious promotional slogan, 'You have to be in it to win it.'

In spite of the odds being 14 million to one against us, we believe we are in with a chance. This time, fate's fickle finger will point in our direction. Just £1 million would do nicely, thank you! Ah, the daydreaming that goes on.

But now consider this. There is a gigantic asteroid out there in space heading towards us at 75,000 miles an hour. If it hits us, in about 11 years' time, it will be big enough to destroy a whole continent and probably wipe out all life on earth. This could happen.

Space experts reckon the chance of such a cataclysmic event is one in 909,000.

You may feel reassured by that figure. But just remember it makes the possibility of such a catastrophe fourteen times more likely than you winning the lottery.

Still, no one believes for a moment that gigantic hunk of rock is going to hit us. By tomorrow it will be old news, a forgotten story.

Yet every week, we remain convinced the big win will change our lives. It is known as the gentle art of self-deception.

The concept of mass annihilation is unthinkable so we reject it. The sweeter prospect of big bucks in the bank, in spite of the vast odds against us, we embrace with heady anticipation.

The Machiavellian techniques of those paid to persuade us greed is good have triumphed. They have persuaded us unreal is real, impossible is possible, the light will shine on us.

This outright madness, reignited every Saturday night, becomes even crazier when you realise your chance of being struck by lightning is about one in 10 million.

There is one chance in 10.5 million you could die from a dog bite. And, infinitely more worrying, one chance in only 8,000 you will be killed in a road accident.

What really irritates me about this menacing asteroid is its lack of a name. It is being referred to as Asteroid 2003 QQ47.

It may be only a tenth of the size of the one that landed in Mexico 65 million years ago, causing the climatic disaster that wiped out the dinosaurs, but if it is threatening my world I want it to have a name.

I want to be able to lean out of my bedroom window and shout out obscenities at Thor, or Vlad, or Genghis. Asteroid 2003 QQ47 is just not good enough.

The last word, before I fill in my lottery form, must go to the Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik, who campaigns for international action to protect the world from asteroids.

In a statement as bizarre as his name, he opines: "We must all wake up and smell the coffee."