The atomic nuclei
Certainly for the
atoms we should distinguish
between nuclei and
electrons.
These latter are
so "unreliable" and so "unfaithful"
that one cannot trust
them.
Today they belong
to this nucleus and tomorrow
to another. And the
next day they get up
and go and fly around freely.
It's better
if we deal with the atomic nuclei.
The material from
which the molecules of our
drop are made
spends only the last
third of its life on Earth.
Before that it was
probably in a star.
The oxygen atom definitely
doesn’t belong to the prime
material of the Cosmos.
It was formed later
by nuclear
reactions (i.e. by
nuclear collisions)
in the interior of a star.
Well, it wasn’t
exactly an atom.
It didn’t have its
electrons.
The nucleus of the
oxygen atom however,
eversince it was formed,
has remained
unchanged until now. Some electrons
of lower energy levels, which remain with
it for a long time, are picked up later.
each collision in
this inferno of collisions inside
the star should be absolutely predetermined to form the particular
nucleus of the oxygen
which, after the explosion of the star
(it must be strictly determined in which direction each nucleus has to move),
has to be found on
Earth, in order to form the particular water
molecule with the (strictly prescribed) protons and all the necessary
(predetermined of course) electrons.
At the moment of
the Big Bang it was strictly determined
which specific protons
would be formed
which would result in this particular star
where after the specified collisions
with the absolutely
predetermined other particles
the oxygen nucleus would be form,
that would arrive on Earth where after other
predefined
collisions would form one
of the 1021 water molecules in our drop.
For the
electrons, exactly the same reasoning apply,
with the
difference that, because of their inherent
"unreliability", we should admire even more the accuracy
in pre-determining the outcome of every interaction.