Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Question

This philosophical question has been asked over 3 million times on Yahoo!Questions, and I hate repeating anything, but it's such a fun question because it get so many interesting responses. I think it was the chicken, and this is true whether you believe in the Genesis account or evolution, simply because there could be no chicken egg without a chicken to lay it.

I also believe that God used the evolutionary process to create the earth; the biblical account is merely allegory to show that it was all God's doing, regardless of the process. My own theory is based on simple common sense.

Answer 1

I'm of the shocking crew that believes that maybe God created the heavens and the Earth THROUGH evolution.

If the sun was created on (not positive), the 3rd day, how long were the first two?

Don't look at me, though, I'm a Pantheist mostly (Creation is creator), so I'm more likely to go with the evolutionary 'egg' viewpoint.

Logic being (give evolution) that 'eggs' were around long before chickens evolved, and even the first 'chicken' came from the first 'chicken' egg laid by the parent, being a 'not-quite-a-chicken'.

Creation logic says that God zapped the chicken into the world and it reproduced by laying the first chicken egg.

Answer 2

It does sound puzzling at first, but how much does one have to think until one realizes that both chicken and egg must necessarily have come from something that is neither a chicken nor an egg? This answer was knowable centuries before biology came about, yet people assumed there was some unsolvable mystery behind the issue.

The modern chicken is generally believed to be a descendant of "Archaeopteryx", the oldest known bird. This 150 million year old resident of the Jurassic period laid eggs, and at some point of time, evolved into an animal that was one generation away from being a proper chicken.

"The egg came first.

DNA mutations occur in the early stages of life of organisms. As you know, when new cells divide, the DNA within the nucleus separates nucleotides and duplicates, then two new helix are formed. The amino acids responsible for mitosis are prone to make mistakes to the genetic architecture-- a beautiful system of flaws that cause evolution and diversity in species. It's like the reason why children will look like their parents, but not approximately, they are a combination of both parent's ancestor genetic history and the result of new combinations in the DNA helix.

So according to fossil research, before the chicken was the "proto-chicken" and this bird was almost chicken, but not quite. Well this proto-chicken laid an egg with a mutation, and the interior change of the DNA was enough that the exterior of the new bird could be thought of as a new species.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

Neither.

It is a cycle that reveals the primordial order of how intelligence eternally flowers and dies - it had no beginning as it is a cycle - like a circle; yet it unfolds like an wave - these two energies combine as the spiral wave nature of being that is clearly evident in things like the double helix of human DNA, hurricanes, and the spiral arms of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Since it is a cycle one can begin anywhere in the cycle to describe it.

For convenience begin with the 'primordial soup' out of which life flowered.

In this case what came first is the environment out of which life forms evolved. And it is self-evident that the process of evolution unfolds from simple structures to more and more comlex ones; they reach a peak and then a complimentary phase of de-evolution occurs.

The structure of the process is identical to breathing as inhaling and exhaling, and/or birth and death (the difference is scale as the evolutionary process takes billions of years).

As far as chickens and eggs go you are witnessing them at a highly developed stage in the cycle wherein chickens produce eggs; yet the 'chicken' is a very complex creature that has evolved over millions/billions of years and it was created by the harmonious interaction (mating) of complimentary partners whose DNA 'union' produced something that survived that was more sophisticated (more comolex that its parents)... in turn this more complex creature mated with a complimentary partner to produce even more complex offspring... and so on...

If we could fast forward to some 'future' time - chickens will have disappeared - this 'future' may not be that far away if the dominant creature of this planet continues to behave the way it has for the past couple of hundred years (in other words all indicators are that we have reached the peak of our evolution and are on the verge of self-destruction).

The remnants of our de-evolution is beginning of another phase of 'primordial soup' out of which will come more eggs and chickens... or whatever they will be called then.

James

Answer 5

The chicken. God created Heaven and earth and all the creatures on the earth.
In response to your logic - there could be no egg without a chicken, there could be no chicken without an egg.
But again - it was the chicken.

Answer 6

The chicken came first.

When the flood came, Noah took two of each into his ARK. Noah did not take any egg with him.

Since God created all, including birds of the air, going by historical perspective, the Chicken came first.

Answer 7

As a believer in evolution and not the bible made up stories of creation, the egg came first from 2 different parent species and then made chickens.

Answer 8

An egg cant take care of itself, so God must have created the Chicken couple.

Answer 9

I think u answered your own question my friend "simply because there could be no chicken egg without a chicken to lay it".

see ya

Answer 10

In the beginning, God created everything in its adult form.
i believe that God Created the chicken couple first in order for them to produce offspring. I believe the answer is that the chicken came first then the egg.