What came first? The chicken or the egg.?

Question

There is a debate going on here at my work and I am looking for other responses!

Answer 1

The chicken or the egg is a reference to the causality dilemma which arises from the expression "which came first, the chicken or the egg?". Since both the chicken and the egg create the other in certain circumstances (a chicken emerges from an egg; an egg is laid by a chicken) it is ambiguous which originally gave rise to the other. Purely logical attempts to resolve the dilemma result in an infinite regress, since an egg was caused by a chicken, which was caused by an egg, etc. Since every chicken originates from its egg, it seems obvious the egg came first. Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life. The solution may require an examination of syntax and may rely on verification from advances in modern genetic science. When used in reference to difficult problems of causality, the chicken and egg dilemma is often used to appeal to the futility of debate and lay it to rest.

History of the problem

The earliest reference to the dilemma is found in Plutarch's Moralia, in the books titled "Table Talk," in a series of arguments based on questions posed in a symposium. Under the section entitled, "Whether the hen or the egg came first," the discussion is introduced in such a way as to suggest that the origin of the dilemma was even older:

"...the problem about the egg and the hen, which of them came first, was dragged into our talk, a difficult problem which gives investigators much trouble. And Sulla my comrade said that with a small problem, as with a tool, we were rocking loose a great and heavy one, that of the creation of the world..."

Various answers have been formulated in response to the question, many of them humorous.

As suggested by the alternative definitions and solutions given below, the chicken-or-egg dilemma has multiple semantic variants and can thus be viewed as an exercise in semantics. Regarding at least two of these variants, the field of biology contains decisive contextual information. Although the problem has been around in one form or another for millennia, making it difficult or impossible to know who first "solved" it, the biological information needed to resolve all of the obvious semantic variants has only been available for decades.

A modern analysis covering all of the major variants was authored by Christopher Langan, published in 2001 on the Mega Foundation website[1], and subsequently included in his book of essays, The Art of Knowing [1]. It appeared again in The Improper Hamptonian [2], was included in abbreviated form in a 2001 Long Island Newsday Q&A column featuring Langan [3], and was compactly summarized in Langan's 2001 Popular Science interview.

A CNN article on May 26, 2006 featured an analysis, according to which the egg came first [2]. The key criteria on which CNN bases its answer, involving relatively recent findings from reproductive and evolutionary biology, are identical to several of those cited in the prior analysis.

Answer 2

Well,this is going to be a debate as well hun,lol.Many say the egg,because a chicken comes form an egg.I am going to give you a "Alternate" Which came first?.So,the question i am going to ask is,which came first,Parents or children? Many would say parents,because you cannot have a child unless you have two parents.Ok,well,you cant have parents or well should i say adults if you dont have children first?It is a debate but i have a theory on it.I know,most do not want to get into the religious part of it,because religion conversations tend to get a little nasty and hater-ish,(New word!).Anyway,On the ARK there were animals of all kinds,shapes,and descriptions.There were two of each animal,a male and a female.So,God created adam and eve,male and female.So therefore,my opinion of this is that he created a hen and a rooster (female and male chicken) and it is the same process even if she lays an egg instead of having a child.That is merely my take on it,it doesnt mean that someone elses opinion is wrong or right.Good luck and i hope you find the answer you are looking for.It is a neverending debate tho,lol

Answer 3

I can never understand this argument.
Say the egg came first, how long is the amount of time before there is a chicken?
Is there an egg, and then a chicken, or does the egg grow into a chicken?
If they egg grows into a chicken, how would an egg be able to survive on it's own? How would it keep warm in order to hatch? Who would feed it?
Or do chicken eggs not need warmth or someone to care for it?

Anyway, I would have to say the chicken. I would say the adult form of anything came first, because youth often need someone or something to care of them until they become an adult.

Answer 4

If you believe in the Bible, the chicken came first. "And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, 'Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven'." Genesis 1:19-20. Chickens are a type of fowl, so the Christian Bible says that chickens came first.

If you have a different religion, you might have a different belief about the how the treasures of the earth came to be. In the science of evolution, both chickens and eggs came before man. Since both the birds and the eggs were on earth first, historians weren't around to record which came first.

Whichever answer you gave, it's okay. A chicken can't be born without a chicken egg and a chicken egg can't be laid without a chicken. Both chickens and eggs are important!

Answer 5

The egg is the female reproductive cell in every sexually reproducing animal on earth. The chicken is a product of a selective breeding program influnced by humans looking for a more docile game bird for food. There was a different bird that was the ancestor of the modern chicken that was not exactly the same as what we now call a chicken. The egg came first.

Answer 6

the thought of evolution states that species substitute over the years by potential of mutation and sexual replica. on condition that deoxyribonucleic acid could be changed in easy terms earlier beginning, it truly is argued that a mutation would desire to have taken place at concept or interior an egg such that a creature corresponding to a chicken, yet no longer a chicken, laid the 1st chicken eggs. those eggs then hatched into chickens that inbred to offer a residing inhabitants.hence, in this gentle, the two the chicken and the form of its egg developed concurrently from birds that, at an identical time as no longer of the comparable top species, gradually grew to become further and extra like recent-day chickens over the years.

Answer 7

The chicken came first.

Answer 8

Chicken comes before egg in the dictionary.
Nothing else really matters, as far as you are concerned.
Get back to work. You're on the clock.

Answer 9

A chicken is an actual chicken, whereas an egg is a potential chicken. Aristotle taught us that actuality precedes potentiality, therefore chicken precedes egg.

Answer 10

The chicken--God made fully developed animals, not unborn chicks in eggs