If matter cannot be created or destroyed, how is decay different?
Matter and energy can change forms. Depending on what's decaying, food releases various gases into the atmosphere. A particle decaying releases various ions and radiation particles.
Decay is more of a breaking down than a going away. And matter can't be destroyed, but it can be converted into energy, and vice versa.
So, you make a fire using logs. At the end of the evening, you have ashes, which are a whole lot smaller than the logs were, and weigh less. The matter wasn't destroyed, but a lot of it was converted to heat energy. Also, some matter isn't visible to us -- some of the carbon in the log combined with oxygen from the air to float around as carbon dioxide. It's still there, we just can't see it.
The decay of elements has to do with releasing energy over time. Matter is converted to energy, but not destroyed. It happens at a steady rate, which helps us check how old things are.
In your everyday life, have you noticed that everything tends to fall apart and disintegrate over time? Decaying buildings, bridges, roadways, automobiles and clothing—that everything is subject to deterioration and is in constant need of repair. Each year, vast sums of money are spent on maintenance and medical bills to counter the unrelenting effects of decay. Material things and all known processes proceed from organization to disorganization—from cosmos to chaos.
Eventually, all things wear out and return to dust —material things are not eternal including our human bodies. Do you wonder why we get old and ultimately die? Age, disease and death of all living things are tied directly to the Second Law of Thermodynamics (sometimes referred to as the Law of Increasing Entropy), which states that usable energy in the universe available for work is decaying or running down to a state of inert uniformity, or heat death.
Although quantity of matter and energy remains the same (according to the First Law of Thermodynamics), the quality of matter/energy deteriorates gradually over time. Every energy transformation reduces the amount of usable or free energy and increases the amount of unusable energy. In other words, as usable energy is used for growth and repair, it is “irretrievably lost in the form of unusable energy.” The effects are all around, touching everything in the world.
The First Law of Thermodynamics states that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can be transferred from one form to another. This law confirms that creation is no longer occurring but it also implies that creation occurred at sometime in the past! In today’s world, there is no creation of new matter and energy rising to higher levels of organization and complexity as evolutionists would have you believe.
Let’s take a step back in time. Because the universe is constantly losing usable energy and never gaining, one can reasonably conclude the universe had a beginning—a moment of least entropy. That is, a time of minimal disorder with a minimal amount of unusable energy—a time when the First Law of Thermodynamics did not apply—a time of creation when systems were rising to higher levels of organized complexity. This is no longer occurring today.
The universe is winding down which would logically mean the universe was created with plenty of usable energy—so the question one might logically ask: “Who wound up the clock?” According to Scripture, the moment of least entropy is fully described in Genesis 1. Applied to the whole universe, this is a fundamental contradiction to the “chaos to cosmos, all by itself” nature of evolutionary doctrine.
Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Psalm 19:1-3 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 19:2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 19:3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning (time), God created the heavens (space) and the earth (matter)."
We all see the evidence of God's creation. How we interpret what we see helps us make sense of this present world. The Bible, the “history book of the universe”, provides a reliable, eye-witness account of the beginning of all things. When properly understood, the “evidence” confirms the biblical account. The universe is "fined tuned" for life, ie designed by a designer, creator, The Lord GOD Almighty.
Starlight And The Age Of The Universe