What came first?

Question

the chicken or the egg.
1 line ansas pls.

Answer 1

i came first

Answer 2

If one assumes the egg to be a chicken egg then one must define what a chicken egg is:

* If: A chicken egg will hatch a chicken

Then a bypass is allowed: An animal that was not a chicken laid the chicken egg which contained the first chicken. In this case the egg came first.

* If: A chicken egg is the egg that a chicken lays

Then a bypass is allowed: A chicken (that hatched from a non-chicken egg) laid an egg (a chicken egg). In this case the chicken came first.

* If: A chicken egg will hatch a chicken and A chicken egg is the egg that a chicken lays

Then there may be an error of definition. If the definition of "chicken" used does not refer to "chicken eggs", then the chicken must come first, because without chickens there cannot be any chicken eggs.

From a cellular biology point of view this question can be answered quite easily. The egg came first because any female sex cell is called an egg.

If the egg is defined structurally as the hard shelled thing, and the chicken a feather covered animal, the answer is still simple. Evolutionary scientists believe the first hard shell egg was the amniotic egg laid around 300 million years ago, and was laid by the animal who was the link between amphibians and reptiles. One of the first dinosaurs that we know had feathers was the Archaeopteryx, and came much later. Modern birds would not arise until 150 million years ago, descending from theropod dinosaurs.

In this case, the first chicken must have been the mutated offspring of a proto-chicken that laid the egg containing the first true chicken. In any case, this creature hatched from a recognizable egg. After all, the question is purposefully ambiguous -- it is not, "Which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg?"

The crux of the matter is how to biologically define 'a chicken'. What level of genetic similarity or structural similarity determine whether an organism is a chicken? One can only define what was the first chicken after the fact, thus any definition of the first chicken becomes arbitrary. The question 'which came first?' ignores the complicated reality of speciation. The concept of species is an abstraction intended to categorize a broad swath of genomes and their subsequent phenomes. If one were to do away with approximate categories, each individual 'chicken' actually represents a unique genotype. Under this definition, if a 'chicken' possessing genome A were to lay an egg possessing genome B, then an egg of genome B is antecedent to an animal possessing genome B and that the parent--genome A--is antecedent to, yet different from the egg of genome B. Hence, in an absolute sense, the egg came before the 'chicken.'

According to the principles of speciation, neither the chicken nor the egg came first, because speciation does not occur in simple, obvious units. In fact, evolution is about a slow transition in an overall population. What qualifies as “chicken” (ignoring the many diverse modern types of chicken) involves a wide range of genetic traits (alleles) that are not encompassed in a single individual and continue to be modified from generation to generation.

The transition from non-chicken to chicken is a grey area in which several generations are involved, and therefore which includes many many chicken-and-egg events, with no one step representing the whole. Since the result of the process is an incomplete transition into various new characteristics rather than one single blueprint, a new species, "chicken", is only identified in hindsight when the species can be obviously identified as different from its ancestral stock.
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Theological answers

According to creationists who believe in Biblical inerrancy, birds were created "on the fifth day". Since there is no reference to the creation of eggs, they presumably were then made by chickens afterwards by the normal process. Therefore, the chicken came first.

Alternatively, for those who accept the intelligent design form of creationism, Eugene Volokh has noted that "In my experience, most creationists are also pro-life -- in which case, the egg is a chicken."

It has been suggested that the definition of "chicken egg" could be "an egg that was laid by a chicken", and that the definition of a chicken could include "being born of a chicken egg". This would make the a perpetual causal loop. An equally valid logical resolution to the problem is to postulate that there are, in fact, no chickens.

It could be said that the question simply requires one to know the context. Most people thinking of the question automatically think of the timeline and it is in this manner that both the previous evolutionary theory and religious teachings contexts arise. Other potential contexts are:

* Having looked through a dictionary from front to back, which came first? - the chicken or the egg?
* When you walked through the supermarket, which came first? - the chicken or the egg?
* When reading the menu, which came first? - the chicken or the egg?


But... Why did the chicken cross the road?

Answer 3

Eggs can't come, must be the chicken

Answer 4

Biblical answer: the chicken ("God created the beasts, etc.") Scientific answer: the chicken, which evolved from a single cell creature, etc. and laid the egg

Answer 5

The chicken, then the egg, then the cook.

Answer 6

The Chicken - it needed something to eat :o)

Answer 7

Hmm the egg. what is this question supposed to link to

Answer 8

Egg.Chicken = bird, bird evolve from dino, dino lay eggs.

Answer 9

Depends on Who Layed WHO !!

Answer 10

the c*ck came first, mrs hen didnt reach climax but did get preggers

Answer 11

chicken.... God made all creatures (not God layed eggs)