Is radioactive decay the 'death' of an atom, and did it exist before the fall?
A viewer asks whether radioactive decay can be interpreted as the death of an atom, and whether the fall caused radioactive decay or whether it existed before the fall.
Answer
Radioactive decay would exist before the fall, because it is actually something healthy for the atom: the atom that decays is unstable, having too many electrons. God created those elements with an abundance of electrons for a reason, because you get energy from that, energy that would destroy our bodies but is useful for other things in the universe. So God packed the atom with a large supply of energy that drips out over the centuries to be used as needed. We can harness the sun's energy only because we are protected by two magnetic shields, a solar one against cosmic radiation from outside the solar system and the Earth's own field against the sun's radiation; otherwise we would be burned to a crisp in seconds. The heavier elements above uranium, element 92, are so unstable that they throw off electrons almost immediately, which is why some have half-lives of a second or a billionth of a second. This is a natural occurrence built into creation from the moment the elements were made, and it is a marvel of nature that only an infinite being like God could design, where the number of protons and electrons determines everything but reaches a safe limit at uranium.