[js1138]

More specifically, given two atoms of the same isotope, what causes one to decay before the other?

[chronic_loser]

Careful there, js. If you are saying that because we cannot observe causal relationships in activity on a certain level, next thing you will be saying is that gaps in transitional fossil records is a proof that those changes never happened.

See what I mean? Absence of proof or absence of observable evidence is not the same thing as proving the obverse. That was where my earlier quip about shooting pool with Hume came from. The fact that no one "observes" causality doesn't mean it is not there. It is just not observable. If this is true in one area of data collection and observation it is true in the others. We know a LOT more about activity on a subatomic level than back when I was in school, but there is also alot we don't know. It is safer to say with Heisenberg that we disturb stuff simply by observing it so that no clear causal links can be observed on a quantum level. Just my opinion.

[ml1954]

More specifically, given two atoms of the same isotope, what causes one to decay before the other?

It must be the work of the Intelligent Designer. We can know no more than that.